Shattered Lylat Prelude: Enter Black Wolf
by Ace Diamond
Summary: A rookie pilot forms up a squadron that must fight alongside Starfox to combat a new Venomian offensive. Please Read and review. Anonymous reviews accepted. FINISHED! All 6 parts up now
1. For every hero, there is a villain

ENTER BLACK Wolf: Part One

Prologue

Place-Corneria Military Academy: Corneria City.

Date: June 15, 2550 (1 year after the Lylat War (SF64))

Time: 1400 hours

Area: Combat Simulators: Ground

Ed Wallace knew he was running out of options. Somewhere in the weapons facility, his foe, Kyle Kerrigan was after him. Ed's K21 Avenger Assault Rifle was low on ammo, and only the threat detector saved him form Kyle's proxy mines. Ed worked his way to "No Man's Land" a hallway in which it was impossible to escape, except for 3 doors that led to dead ends.

"Stop running, you're only making things worse!" shouted Kyle. His evil taunt reverberated through the facility's empty halls.

"What's the matter, can't find me!?" retorted Ed.

"...Yeah, that's it."

Kyle increased speed, Ed's last taunt had gotten to him. He ran into the NML looking for him.

"I know damn well you're behind that door Ed," yelled Kyle "Come out a meet my shotgun!" Kyle had it set to "DBL Blast". At close range, it would be fatal. Little did he know that he was facing the wrong door, and that Ed was behind him. Ed lined up his sights...

"YO DUMBASS!!!!" he said

Kyle turned

"Oh SHIT!"

The last sound Kyle heard was the noise of Ed's K21 ripping into his chest. The next sound told him the story.

"Game over. Ed wins." Said the computer's voice

"Why did I choose no radar!?!?!?" lamented Kyle

" 'Cause you're a dumbass." Ed snickered.

"Damn straight!" said Mark Rendar, Ed's best friend. They both knew that Kyle was too much a risk taker. You could get the hyena to do anything you wanted to. Kyle was a good fighter, but Ed, being a wolf, had cunning instincts. Mark had no particular traits, except loyalty and strength, which was common among member of the Siberian Husky species.

"One of these days I'm going to bring you down, and hard!" yelled Kyle "Same to you, Mark!!"

"Promises, promises," said Ed, "it will be a cold day in Hell before that happens!"

"Screw you!" retorted Kyle, and he stomped away

"Ed, you do realize he'll try to pull a prank on you, AGAIN!" said Mark

"No shit Capt. Obvious! That's why I have a security system set to catch him, AND get him kicked out of the Academy. I'm surprised he made it this far without getting caught."

Ed and Mark both knew Kyle was a constant threat to them. He was a loose cannon, always acting to endanger, not to mention only caring about himself.

"Yeah, 4 straight years, and now you're going to derail his career 2 weeks before graduation."

15 minutes later, the headmaster, Lt. Frank Kent came up to them.

"Do you know Kyle Kerrigan?" he asked

"I know of him." said Ed

"He left this note on your door. There is a similar note on your door, Cadet," the Lieutenant's last comment had been directed at Mark

Ed took the note and read it, he recognized Kyle's writing

"-Ed. In case you are wondering, I'm deserting the Academy. You've pushed me too far you short bastard!!! Next time I see you, I'll kill you!"

-Kyle"

"Whoa. I didn't expect that!" said Ed.

"We're not going to go after him, it's his choice to leave if he wants. We would have probably expelled him for rigging your room with 2 pounds of Semtex."

"Okay" said Mark

"Whatever," said Ed. "How did he escape exactly?"

"He jacked one of our Shark class fighters and headed towards Venomian territory"

"Hmm. The Shark isn't exactly the most sophisticated fighter, but it's not exclusively used by the CAF." Said Mark.

"What better way to defect than with a universal fighter." said Ed.

"I have other matters to attend to, see you in 2 weeks." said Kent. The tiger spun on his heels and marched down the hall.

June 29,

1430 hours

The next 2 weeks passed by uneventfully. In the final exams, which involved hand-2-hand fighting, armed ground combat, and air combat tests, Ed scored a 100%, the third pilot to do so in history. Mark scored a 98%. At the graduation ceremony, Ed and Mark received top honors. Ed thought it kind of amazing. The white diploma stood out against his black fur as he raised it up high, showing everyone that you didn't have to be tall to make it to the top. (Ed was only 5' 10", even though he was 18).

Mark stood next to his friend, receiving the praise the two deserved all these years.

After graduation, Ed and Mark checked out the squadron assignments and rank boards for the Cornerian Air Force.

"Jesus Christ!" shouted Ed. "Not only did I get command of Black Squadron, but I've been made a Lt. Commander! That just doesn't seem possible!"

"You're telling me!" said Mark "Turns out I'm your second in command, and I've been made a Lieutenant! I knew we were good, but not _this _good!"

Just then, the Academy's alarms went off.

"Red Alert!! Enemy starfighters are on an attack vector for the Academy!!! All Black Squadron pilots report to hangar 19! This is not a drill!"

"Guess that means us, Mark!" said Ed

"Let's go!"

Chapter 1

Place: CAF Hangar 19: Corneria City

Day: Same as before

Time: 1500 hours

"Black Squadron, you are cleared for launch." Said the "Air Boss"

"Copy that. Initiating launch." said Lt. Commander Ed Dubois. With that, the four jet-black Arwings of Black Squadron took off on their first mission.

Besides Ed and Mark, the other two pilots were also Academy graduates. One was Sergeant Damien Norris. He was a red-tailed hawk from Katina, and had wanted to join the Air Force ever since he saw Starfox defeat Andross's invasion force at Katina. The other pilot was Sergeant Karl Riker. He was a German shepherd, also from Katina.

"Attention all Cornerian forces, this is Lt. Commander Ed Wallace of Black Squadron, we are here to assist."

"This is Fox McCloud of Starfox, glad to have you with us."At the mention of the names "Fox McCloud" and "Starfox", Ed's ears pricked up. Here he was on his first ever mission, and he was flying alongside the greatest pilot ever, as well as the most famous mercenary squadron ever.

"This is Black-3," said Sgt. Norris, "I have multiple bogies on radar at 12 o' clock"

"Roger that Black-3," said Ed. He flicked his black shades down over his blue eyes, "Black Squadron, you are clear to engage all hostiles"

"Fox, this is Ed. We are engaging hostile aircraft at 12 o' clock. There is at least one frigate in that combat group."

"Copy, we'll keep a lookout for any more capital ships," said Fox "All craft you are clear to engage."

The 8 Arwings flew directly at the battle group.

Ed flew into the first squadron directly.

"See you in hell!" he shouted as he hit the triggers for his lasers.

His lasers lashed out, cutting apart the Invader III fighters.

Mark blew away 5 fighters in mere seconds.

"Ed I've got a visual on the frigate, it appears to be a stolen Cornerian _Justice_ Class Vessel" said Mark

"How could space pirates get their hands on a _Justice_ Class frigate?" asked Riker.

"Because," said a mysterious, yet familiar voice, "we aren't ordinary space pirates!"

"Kyle you traitorous bastard!!!" yelled Ed

"Correct, and true to what I said before I defected, I'm now going to kill you!!!!"

Ed sees a Wolfen II fighter come at his craft.

"Oh no, I'm so scared!" Ed fires away at the craft. Kyle only manages to dodge one shot, the rest blow away huge chunks of armor.

"SHIT" yelled Kyle. "Red Group follow me, Gold Group, attack _Great_ _Fox_!" Kyle's fighter flies towards the planet

"Fox, you've got fighters headed for _Great Fox_! They have fusion bombs!" yelled Mark

"I'll handle it," said Falco Lombardi as he flew at the 10 Scorpion Bombers. Ed also saw Peppy Hare attacking the bombers

"Ed, Red Group is on an attack vector for the Academy!" said Sgt. Norris.

" I see them. Mark, follow me, we have to save the Academy!"

"I'm right behind you Black Leader!" Mark enthusiastically replied.

Chapter 2

Low atmosphere in Corneria

Same day

1530 hours

Kyle flew his Wolfen II ahead of the 7 other Wolfen I fighters. Each fighter had a Hellfire class fusion bomb. All 8 of these bombs would reduce the Academy to rubble.

"Almost there. In one minute, I'll be able to wipe the Academy off the planet, and out of my mind.

Just then Red-2 exploded.

"What?!"

"Did you think I was going to let you hit the Academy without any resistance!?" came Ed's mocking voice over the comm.

"Can't let you do that, Kyle!" said Mark as he blasted two more Wolfens out of the sky.

Ed and Mark wove between the confused fighters, and incinerated them. Soon only Kyle was left.

Kyle fired the bomb at the main office of the Academy.

"You're too late!!!" he laughs as he heads back towards his command ship

"I'll handle the bomb, Ed, you kill the traitor!" growled Mark as he fired at the bomb, blowing it up before it could hit the main office

"Copy that," Ed replied. Ed then flew his Arwing towards Kyle.

"Leaving the party so soon, Kyle?" Ed taunted as he fired mercilessly at the Wolfen IIs engines

"Damn!" yelped Kyle as he struggled for control, but to no avail, his engines were almost disabled, and half of one wing snapped off. "I quit! I'm leaving, just let me take my ship and go home!"

"I don't think so!" came the almost unanimous reply from the pilots of Black Squadron, and Starfox. The eight fighters attacked the frigate, in 10 seconds it blew away in a massive explosion, the missiles had detonated the fusion reactor.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" cried Kyle. "I'll get you next time!! You haven't heard the last of the Venomian Imperial Army!!" He managed to jump his crippled fighter into hyperspace along with a few other fighters, and avoid getting shot down.

"Damn, the coward got away!" said Ed.

"Who cares?" said Mark, "We kicked his ass, and didn't lose a single pilot!"

"You're absolutely right" said Fox, "You guys are good, especially considering that you graduated only one hour ago."

"Thanks," said Ed. "Our fighters are in need of refit and repair, can we dock at _Great Fox_?"

"Sure"

The eight fighters flew into the _Great Fox_'s docking bay.

Chapter 3

The _Great Fox_

1545 hours

After docking, Ed filed a formal report with General Pepper.

"General, the attack was led by a traitor known as Kyle. I don't know his motives, but he tried to nuke the Academy. My team along with the help of Starfox managed to repulse the attack."

"Excellent work, Ed. From our radio intercepts, we have reason to believe you know this traitor." Said the General

"That is correct, sir. He and I didn't exactly get along."

"Well, we believe you can assist us in our fight against this 'Imperial Army'. We are giving your Black Squadron and Starfox permission to run your own missions against this pseudo-army."

"Excellent idea, sir. I do have one question though."

"What?"

"Can I change the name of my squadron?"

"Sure, we don't see a problem with that."

"Okay, from now on, my team shall be known as...Black Wolf."

"Why exactly that name?"

"Well, you know how Wolf O'Donnell has his Star Wolf team. I believe that the name Black Wolf is suitable. A squadron led by a wolf, except on the good side."

"When you put it that way, it makes sense."

"Thought so. I'll let my team know of the developments."

"Very well. General Pepper, out."

Ed closed the comm terminal and walked into the lounge of the _Great Fox_. His team was there, chatting with the Starfox team. Right now it sounded like they were talking about the Lylat War.

As Ed moved to sit down he remembered the horror of the Lylat War 1 year ago.

_He was a junior in the Academy. He had just been promoted to Second Officer. This rank was the 3rd highest possible rank in the Academy. Mark was also a 2nd officer. Their friend ,Dave Chang, a Komodo Dragon, was a 3rd officer. Kyle was a 3rd officer as well. As the four of them were walking to their next class, Astrophysics, an alarm began to sound._

"Red Alert! Venomian forces are attacking Corneria City. All cadets with the ranking of 3rd officer or higher, report to the hangars!!"

"Let's get moving!" yelled Ed, as he took off down the hall.

"Ed?"

Ed snapped out of his trance, he realized Fox was speaking to him.

"Mark says you two fought in the battle of Corneria. Is that true?"

"Yeah...let me tell you all about it. I've never told anyone else this before, because the memory is painful."

As Ed began to talk about it, the memories came back in vivid images.

__

Ed's Arwing fighter took off. He was given temporary command of Red Squadron. His wingmen were Kyle, Dave, and Mark. Their mission was to destroy as many Venomian units as possible. Ed didn't realize that the Starfox team was on its way. In fact, he didn't find out until later, after the battle.

"This is Red-3 I'm picking up 25 enemy contacts on radar, 1Km away." said Dave.

"Air or ground?" asked Ed

"Both"

"All craft engage at will, but stick close together!"

The 4 Arwings attacked the battle group. The lightly armored fighters and tanks were no match for the squadron. As the last fighter hit the ground, Ed checked the kill data. He had gotten 10 enemies, everyone else got 5 each.

"HOLY SHIT!!!" yelled Kyle.

"What is it?" asked Ed.

"I mark 100 units incoming. 75 air, and 25 ground." Kyle replied.

"All right. We have a mission to do. Be careful, and let's take all of these guys out!"

With that order, the fighters of Red Squadron charged head on at the oncoming enemy fighters.

Things went well, the 25 tanks were eliminated early by Nova Bombs. The advanced Bolse class fighters, however, were posing a challenge. After 15 minutes, all but 15 enemies were destroyed. The 4 Arwings were barely holding out. Ed could see blast craters on his wings, as well as on his squadmate's fighters.

"Ed, help me out here!!!" yelled Dave. He had 7 fighters on his tail. Ed couldn't help him though, as he had 5 fighters on his tail. Mark was battling the last 4. Only Kyle was in any position to help Dave out.

"Kyle, help Dave!" yelled Ed

"Screw you, Ed. I'm not getting myself killed for that Dragon's hide!!!!"

Kyle turned tail and ran.

"Kyle...YOU COWARDLY BASTARD!!!" Ed yelled. He threw his fighter full throttle at Dave's attackers, firing away, hoping he would be in time to save Dave.

He wasn't

The 4 remaining fighters that were attacking Dave fired. Dave's fighter burst into flames, and fell to the ground. Dave did not eject.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

yelled Ed. In a rage he fired away, vaporizing the 4 fighters, he kept up his attack on the remaining enemy fighters, even after one fighter breached his cockpit, causing massive chest wounds. Ed was forced to crash-land his fighter back at the base, but he had gotten them all. As he got out, he went straight for Kyle. Ignoring his own wounds, he slammed Kyle to the ground.

"Thanks to you Dave is DEAD!"

"Whatever do you mean? It's not my fault he got himself shot down."

Ed didn't reply. Instead he beat up Kyle. He then tried to finish him off, but at that point his injuries got the better of him, and he slumped to the ground, sobbing.

Ed spent a week in the infirmary for chest trauma. Ed also got a scar over his left eye from shrapnel damage. Kyle was not present at Dave's memorial service. (Dave's body was never found, nor was the wreck of his fighter).

"Ever since then, Kyle and I were bitter enemies. I vowed to myself never again would I let anyone suffer from Kyle's insubordination, etc."

He looked around. Most of the expressions on his "audience's" faces were of shock. Mark had his head bowed in respect for Dave's memory. Fox seemed to have a look of sympathy on his face. After all, Fox knew what it was like to lose a friend or relative.

"So you were the same two guys that were recognized as two heroes of that battle," said Falco. He was; of course, referring to the Valor medals pinned on Ed, and Mark's chests.

Ed nodded.

"The worst part was that Kyle didn't get in trouble for running. After all, he was still a cadet. Even if your cowardice results in the death of a comrade, it doesn't mean a thing if you're a cadet." Ed was visibly angry. He pounded the table with his fist.

"When I next encounter Kyle, I will make sure he doesn't live to fight another day!" the thought of finishing off his rival seemed to calm Ed somewhat. He walked out the lounge, but came back 5 minutes later, and asked his squadron to come with him for a meeting.

Chapter 4

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Great Fox

1600 hours

"All right, listen up." Ed said, "After speaking with General Pepper, he told me that we'd be working with the Starfox team during this conflict with the Imperials. He also agreed on changing our squad name to Black Wolf. I think you guys can see why."

He saw that everybody did understand. Then Karl spoke up

"Sir? Does this mean we're mercenaries now?"

"I'm not sure," Ed replied "right now I think we're still Cornerian Military. Our next paychecks will tell us the true answer, though."

"Does Fox know about this?" asked Mark

"I think he'll know in about 10 seconds."

Ten seconds later Fox ran up.

"Do you guys know that you'll be working with us in this conflict?" he asked

"Yeah." Ed replied.

"Well then, make yourselves at home. It looks like you guys will be staying on board for a while."

Just then the communicators crackled to life.

"Incoming report from Katina." Said ROB-64.

"Put it through," said Fox

The video screen next to them showed a Siberian husky wearing a green flight helmet and aviator shades. He was obviously in flight and in battle, as the sound of laser fire and explosions were heard.

"Starfox, this is Commander Bill Grey. An enemy force known as the Imperial Venomian Army, or just the Imperials are relentlessly attacking our main base. We cannot hold out much longer! We have reports that one of those ID-4 Battle Saucers is en route!! Hurry Starfox!!!"

The screen went dead.

"Damn," said Fox

"This doesn't look good," Falco said

"Well, we can't just sit around her doing nothing while Bill and his squadrons get cut to ribbons. We have to help!" said Ed

"I agree," said Damien, "I'm not too keen on seeing my homeworld put under enemy control."

"Same here" said Karl.

"Let's get moving then!" said Fox

With that the eight pilots ran to the docking bay of Great Fox.

"ROB, set emergency course for Katina, ASAP!!!"

"Acknowledged" said ROB.

The Great Fox jumped to hyperspace.

Chapter 5

Katina

1630 hours

The sky over Katina was a bloodbath of sorts. Fighters on both sides were dropping out of the skies. Husky and Bulldog squadrons were heavily outnumbered, with no reinforcements at all.

"Huskies 5-9 cover the base!" Bill yelled frantically over his comm.

"I'm hit...ARGRRGHHHH!!!"

Husky 7's radar dot went off.

"Damn it!!!" yelled Bill.

Just then two Invader III fighters flew straight at him, guns blazing

"Shit, I'm gonna die!" Bill realized.

The two fighters suddenly exploded

"What the...."

"Is this a private party, or can anyone join?" said Fox as the eight pilots of Starfox and Black Wolf flew inbound at the oncoming enemies.

"Man am I glad to see you four!!" said Bill.

"Actually we only got one of those fighters," said Falco, "you have the Black Wolf squadron to thank for saving your butt."

"Black Wolf?" queried Bill

"Long story, we'll explain later!" said Ed "Right now we have a battle to fight!!"

"Hell yeah!" said Mark.

The eight Arwings flew at the fighters, shredding them. For a while it looked all too easy, but just then...

"Enemy Mothership inbound!!!" yelped Bill.

A huge Battle Saucer came in. This one was the updated version of the one from the Lylat wars, it was armed with many turbolasers. Which were firing right now.

"OH CHRIST!!" yelled Mark as he frantically dove and rolled to avoid the laser fire.

4 ships from Husky flight flew in at the saucer firing their missiles, but nothing was damaged.

"The deflector shield is too strong!" croaked Slippy.

"If we don't think up a plan fast, we, and everyone in the base will be dead." Said Falco worriedly.

As the hatches on the saucer opened up again, an idea came to Ed.

"Fox, Mark, Bill, follow me!" he ordered as he flew towards one of the open hatches.

"What the hell are you doing!?" yelled Fox.

"Just trust me!" Ed yelled back.

They flew into the hatch, blasting away at everything in sight.

"The core is dead ahead, fire bombs at it!" said Ed

So they did. The bombs flew at the core and hit it, as the core began to explode, they flew past it towards the other side.

"Ed, the hatch is closing!!!!" Mark urgently yelled

"Go for broke!" yelled Ed

Just when it seemed like they wouldn't make it, Damien's Arwing fired at the hatch, jamming it open.

The four fighters escaped through the hatch just as the Saucerer Mk. II exploded.

"YEE-HAW. You did it!!!" yelled Bill enthusiastically.

"Thanks for the help Damien" said Ed

"Ahhh...It was nothing" Damien casually replied.

Without the saucer's protection, the remaining fighters were mopped up with little trouble.

Chapter 6

__

Great Fox

1710 hours

"That was a nice bit of flying there Ed," complimented Bill "But how did you know that the flight hatches led straight to the core?"

"It's quite simple really. I observed that at least 20 fighters could be launched at once form the launch hatches on the saucer. Viewing the data from the First Battle of Katina, I knew that there was enough room 80 fighters in each hatch area," Ed continued. "Logically, the only way they could fit that many fighters on the ship was by making all bays lead straight to the massive core."

Bill, not to mention Fox, was astounded "Not a bad bit of technical reference. You sure know your stuff."

"Nah... I only know some of that technical stuff. Mark knows most of it, but he and I both pulled mechanical duty on the squadron's fighters, and we've been making adjustments to them, such as more armor, speed, missile launchers, etc."

"Yeah" Mark chimed in, "I'm working on a way to stick more lasers on the Arwings, without overheating it. So far I've been disastrously unsuccessful. "

"Maybe if we used a fusion reactor with greater initial heat efficiency, but same size, it could work." Said Slippy.

"Good idea," said Mark "It seems that us working together is going to be greater than anyone has anticipated."

"Incoming transmission from General Pepper." Said ROB-64.

"Well, let's go see what the brass wants us to do now," said Norris.

Meanwhile...

Imperial Army HQ in Macbeth

1730 hours

"An entire regiment...LOST???!!! Incompetent fools!" Snarled Kyle Kerrigan. I thought that you two were the best of the remaining Imperial forces, not a couple of crack smokers with an insane vision of grandeur!"

In front of him, General Josef Sephiroth Caine, and General Katlin Stienburg stood at rapt attention, barley shifting their gaze. Caine decided to speak up.

"With all due respect, sir," the panther began, "this whole invasion was you're idea. Technically, you don't even run this army, Stienburg and I do. The only reason anybody is going along with this is because you seen to have some charismatic effect on everyone; that, and you know about the Cornerian military."

If Kyle was mad, he didn't show it. "So, you think I'm no competent pilot, huh? Well I'll show you. Bring in Commander O'Donnell!"

Caine saluted. "Yessir!"

Wolf O'Donnell walked into the command center.

"What is it, Lord Kerrigan?"

"Take a look at this battle footage from our failed invasion of Katina."

Wolf studied the 10-minute battle.

"See anything wrong with the plan of attack?"

"No sir," Wolf replied

"Then why did it fail?"

Wolf chuckled "That's easy to see, my Lord. These 8 Arwings flew in, and helped to ruin your plan; most particularly these black ones, as they seemed to have the idea to blast up your saucer."

"Damn them!! Damn Ed and his BlackWolf squadron, damn Fox and his Starfox squadron...Damn Bill Grey!!!!" Kyle was infuriated "That's it, prepare all forces for a renewed invasion of Katina!!!"

"That would be unwise, my Lord," Wolf responded.

"And why is that?"

Caine decided to redeem himself

"They'd be expecting that"

"Exactly," said Wolf, "Instead we should attack Fortuna, which is lightly defended as of now, there we will crush Starfox and BlackWolf in one mighty blow!!!"

"Leaving us with a clear path to Corneria," said Kyle "Great thinking, _Colonel _O'Donnell,"

"Colonel?" Wolf was puzzled

"You heard me right, Wolf, Colonel. You've been promoted for your damn fine idea, and as a result you are in charge of the operation. Also, I'm now contracting your squadron to be my honor guard. I will be leading the charge into Fortuna, and you will be backing me up. Then we will take over Corneria, and scare the rest of Lylat into surrender with our new superweapon. BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!! " Kyle maniacally laughed. "Ready the 4th Imperial Guard, destination Fortuna!! Oh, and Wolf, remember to bring along the warship I gave you guys."

"Yes, my Lord" Wolf saluted and exited the command center.

END OF PART ONE

Questions? Comments? Email me at 


	2. We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Enter Black Wolf: Part Two

And now the annoying DISCLAIMER: I forgot to put this in part one, so here it is. Starfox and its members are copyright Nintendo. Black Wolf, Ed Wallace, Mark Rendar, Damien Norris, and Karl Riker are my squadron and characters, so you have to ask me for permission of use. The Arwing, Wolfen I, and Wolfen II fighters are copyright Nintendo. The Shark-class fighter and the Justice-Class Frigate from part one are mine. Kyle Kerrigan, Josef Caine, Katlin Stienburg, and Frank Kent are also, mine. However, Wolf O'Donnell and the rest of Star Wolf are not (copyright Nintendo). Bill Grey, Husky Squadron, Bulldog Squadron, and all planets of Lylat copyright Nintendo. There will be another disclaimer at the end outlining who owns what out of this part. Now then, on to the story (finally).

__

Chapter 7

Great Fox; 1740 Hours; June 15, 2550 

"Good work, Black Wolf and Starfox, on your excellent victory at Katina. It's nice to know that both squadrons are performing to our expectations," said General Pepper over the comm transmission to the Great Fox.

"As usual, the regular army gets no credit," Bill Grey grumbled.

"On the contrary Commander," the General said. "For excellent action in halting Imperial incursion towards Corneria, the surviving members of your squadron are receiving the Distinguished Action Medal. Incidentally, your squadron has also proved it's worth very well in the growing conflict."

"Well, that's a plus," Bill replied.

"So far the Imperials are very quiet, they have bases on Macbeth and Katina, but have yet to make a successful strike on this side of Solar," Pepper continued "Our next action concerns all of you. We have determined that the main Imperial base of operations is on Macbeth. The time is now to put down this futile uprising."

"What, a two day war?" questioned Damien Norris "Seems odd, but okay, whatever brings peace, right?" the hawk said to nobody in particular.

"Anyway," continued Pepper "we have decided that Black Wolf, Starfox, and the Husky and Bulldog Squadrons should mount a full assault on Macbeth. This should catch the Imperials off guard, leaving them fully open to your assault."

"What are Imperial Force estimates on Macbeth, sir?" Ed Wallace asked

"We have no idea."

"Oh that's just freaking great!!" yelled Falco Lombardi. "For all we know we could fly right into a space armada!!"

"We've done that before" Fox reminded him

"Yeah, but we knew about it" Slippy pointed out.

"Hey, it's a risk, but they probably won't be expecting fighter assaults. Right Ed?" Mark Rendar put in.

"Most likely" said Ed

"If you're ready to do this," General Pepper replied. "Move out as soon as possi... wait a second."

Pepper was handed a hardcopy from his aide. After studying it for a few seconds, Pepper turned his attention back to the 9 pilots standing in the _Great Fox_. "Looks like the assault is on hold boys," he said "Fortuna is being invaded by an Imperial Regiment, and the militia can't hold out. Intel reports suggest that Star Wolf is part of the attacking force."

"Damn, this is bad" Mark nervously replied

"There's no time to lose, we have to move out to Fortuna!!!" Fox yelled

"But it's far too dangerous!" yelled Pepper

"When has that ever stopped us?" Fox replied "Ed are you with us?"

"I am, what about you guys?" Ed asked his squadmates

"Hell Yeah!!!" Mark answered

"Always" replied Damien

"Never ran from a fight in my life, no matter the odds," said Karl Riker

"'Yes' would have been fine Karl" said Damien

"Then its settled, ROB set a course for Fortuna," said Fox "General, don't worry, we'll make it back in one piece. Fox out"

The comm turned off.

"Course set. Destination Fortuna." Said ROB "Hyperspace in 10 seconds. Please Fasten seat belts."

The Great Fox jumped out to Fortuna.

Chapter 8

__

Fortuna; 1500 hours

"Wolf, you and your lackeys are clear to engage" said Kyle Kerrigan from the cockpit of his Wolfen II fighter.

"Yes, sir" Wolf said, a little annoyed about his wingmen being referred to as lackeys. "You heard him, wipe the CDF out, leave nothing standing!"

The 5 Wolfen II fighters blasted through the atmosphere, descending on Fortuna's frontline base. They started raining Nova Bombs and laser fire on the area. Nearby, countless Invader III fighters assaulted the base, the CDF stood no chance, most of them fleeing desperately, some futilely returning fire. Although a few Invader IIIs fell, Wolf expected this battle would be over in less then 5 minutes, with minimal losses.

"Colonel O'Donnell this is the _Dire Wolf_ " Came the voice of Captain Rodney Carroba, CO of the _Intimidator_-class warship (_Dire Wolf_)"We're picking up incoming hyperspace signature...it's the _Great Fox_!"

"Excellent, what is she doing?" He hoped that this time, Fox McCloud would not survive this battle

"Nothing...wait, fighter launch! 9 fighters 8 of them Arwings, 4 of them black. The other fighter is a new Wolfhound fighter with CDF markings. The black Arwings are headed for the surface, do we intercept?"

"Negative, prepare to engage the _Great Fox_. I will handle this "Black Wolf" Squadron." Wolf said "O'Donnell out"

***

__

Good thing I have my shades on, or else I couldn't see a damn thing, thought Ed as he led his squadron down on the besieged base. The light from Solar was reflecting off of the ice and snow on Fortuna, making for an extremely bright battleground.

"Ed, I mark 5 Wolfen IIs on fast approach," said Karl.

"That would be Star Wolf, and most likely Kyle Kerrigan as well," said Fox over the comm. "You should be able to handle them; we'll stay up here and attack their armada."

"Force estimate?" said Ed

"I see at least 4 _Zeram_-class cruisers, 2 _Aggressor _Attack Carriers, 6 _Harlock_ Frigates, one _Saruzin _Cruiser, and an new _Intimidator _Cruiser" said Slippy.

"You need any help?" said Mark

"Nah...we've seen worse, but we'll let you know if things get too hot" said Falco

"Okay, Over and out" said Ed.

Ed had barely cut communication with Starfox when his comm window opened up again. The screen displayed a one-eyed wolf with what appeared to be a show of demonic hatred on his face.

"So you are the new mercenaries on the block" the Wolf said

"And you must be the infamous Wolf O'Donnell, leader of Star Wolf." Ed replied

"Correct, I guess we are feared by academy pilots"

"No, not really, we more or less know you for your pathetic incompetence and habit of empty threat making." Mark retorted

"I'm already starting to dislike this 'Black Wolf' squadron" came the voice of Leon Powalski.

"I already disliked you!" Ed yelled "Time to remove an unwanted annoyance to Corneria!

"That so?" replied Pigma Dengar "I doubt that!"

"Enough chat, it's time to see who outflies whom!!" Yelled Norris

"ATTACK!!!" Kyle yelled, a little out of his element. The 5 Wolfen IIs flew towards them 

"Stay sharp, everybody, there's 5 of them, although I doubt Kyle or Andrew are going to be much of a threat!" said Ed "I'll handle Wolf, you guys have free range on targets"

"Roger, I'll take on Leon" said Mark

"Pigma is my target!" yelled Norris

"That leaves me to take down Andrew" Karl calmly replied

"Nobody attacks their leader, he is mine!" snarled Wolf

"Isn't it great to feel wanted?" Mark asked

"Don't I know it!" Ed replied "Okay Black Wolf, engage at will!! Last one to get a kill is buying the drinks!" The 4 Arwings boosted in fast to meet their aggressors head on. At the last possible second, the Arwings broke off firing away, and the Wolfen IIs tailed them closely. 

Ed jinked left and right, and made good use of his G-Diffuser to deflect and dodge Wolf's shots. Then he somersaulted to get on Wolf's tail.

"What the hell?" said Wolf

"Wow, susceptible to the same tactics...that's sad" Ed said as he opened fire on Wolf's fighter. The lasers blew chunks of armor away from the right wing and fuselage, Ed started to "walk" his lasers deeper into the fuselage when he was hit from behind

"What the hell?" Ed yelped, but then he noticed Kyle's Wolfen II blast past him

"HA HA HA, two against one!!" Kyle maniacally laughed as he and Wolf turned around and prepared to fry Ed's fighter.

"I don't think so" Ed calmly replied as he boosted the Arwing to maximum velocity. At the very last moment, just before passing the two Wolfen IIs, Ed fired a Nova Bomb it detonated just as he flew by both Wolf and Kyle.

"Shit" yelled Wolf

"Ow!" yelled Kyle

When the blast cleared the two fighters were barley airborne, but Kyle's fighter was worse off

"Where the hell did he go!?" Kyle demanded

"Try looking up numbnuts!!" taunted Ed. Ed's Arwing dove down, lasers blazing, the shots tore the right side of Kyle's fighter clean off. Kyle's fighter spun out of control, slamming into the ground, and skipping along the ice. Wolf instantly flew away before incurring any damage for Ed's surprise attack.

"Agh!! I'm down, but alive." Came Kyle's terrified voice.

"Scratch one bandit!' Ed said over the comm

"Punching out!!!" Andrew suddenly yelled over the open channel.

"Scratch two" said Karl as Andrew's radar dot blinked off.

__

Well, thought Ed, _We've put down two of theirs in about 5 minutes, but I don't know how much longer this can go on. I hope Starfox is doing better than we are_.

Chapter 9

__

Fortuna (Orbit), 1545 hours

"_Great Fox_, we're starting our run on the _Saruzin_, give us some cover fire!" fox McCloud yelled into his comm

"_Great Fox _will cover you" came back ROB's monotonous voice.

The _Great Fox _opened up on the lead _Zeram _its twin Ultra Lasers. The shots traveled up the length of the ship before shearing off the bridge area. The ship exploded two seconds later, damaging a nearby _Harlock_. The _Great Fox_ continued to open fire on other capital ships, causing major damage, and taking down one _Aggressor_.

"Go now!!" Fox yelled "Bill, stop as many fighters as possible from reaching the _Great Fox_!"

"Got it, I'll wait here until further orders." said Bill

"Falco, you and Slippy draw fire then hit the _Saruzin _from the left"

"Got it" came Falco's reply.

The 4 Arwings wove in and out among the capital ships, destroying many fighters.

"I'm in range of the cruiser" said Peppy "bomb away!"

"Roger" said Fox "Firing Bomb"

The two bombs hit the top of the _Saruzin_, it shuddered for a second, and then two more bombs, from Slippy and Falco, hit the ship, capitalizing on the earlier damage. The ship quaked for a few seconds, then multiple explosions appeared on its surface. The _Saruzin_'s ammo bays ignited, taking the ship with it in a massive set of explosions.

"Yes! That got 'em!" said Falco.

"Guys, the capital ships are converging on the _Great Fox_! I can't hold them off for long" Bill frantically yelled over the comm.

"You heard him get back to the ship! We have to protect it!" Fox shouted.

They flew back, trying to hit as many enemy vessels as possible, many fighters, and 5 more capital ships fell, but the _Intimidator _was still a reigning threat. It fired its massive "Grande" laser cannon. The shot slammed into the starboard side of the _Great Fox_.

"Warning! Starboard engine severely damaged" said ROB.

"Not good," said Fox, "Tell Ed that he and his buddies are going to have to bug out in 5 minutes or less"

***

"C'mon asshole, it's your turn to hit the ice!!" growled Ed

For the past 5 minutes he had been trying to shoot down Wolf. Wolf was the only Star Wolf pilot still flying, as Mark had downed Leon just after Andrew fell, and Pigma slammed into a cliff while fighting Damien. Damien and Karl were now raising hell at the new Imperial base of operations on Fortuna.

"No, you will be the one dying!" said Wolf as he turned to face Ed.

"Excellent, a chicken run! Let's see what you've got!"

The two fighters boosted towards each other head on, lasers blasting. Shots hit Ed, but he ignored them.

"Try this on for size!" Ed yelled as he suddenly braked and inverted his fighter. Wolf blew past him cursing.

"Game over Wolf," Ed said as he locked onto Wolf's engines and fired

The shots slammed home, the engines on Wolf's fighter cut out, and he began to fall towards the ground.

"Well played Ed," said Wolf "but I will get the last laugh. As his fighter skipped along the icy ground he called out "_Dire Wolf_ attack at full power, destroy the _Great Fox_!"

"Damn! Let's get out of here guys!!" yelled Ed "Full throttle back to _Great Fox_! Fox, get that ship powered up, you're gonna get plastered otherwise!"

The Arwings flew into orbit, just in time to see another "Grande Laser" destroy more armor on the _Great Fox_. The _Great Fox_ struck back, destroying the "Grande Cannon"

The 4 Arwings of Black Wolf almost crash-landed inside the hangar bay, but they didn't have time to worry. Already, the sounds of hull rupture and early structural failure were beginning to echo throughout the ship. 

"ROB, GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE, NOW!!!!!!" Falco vehemently yelled

"ok" came ROB's reply

A few more shots hit the hull, and the _Great Fox _jumped outsystem.

***

Wolf climbed out of his wrecked fighter. Pigma had come across his crash site and cut open the cockpit with his blaster.

"Thanks" said Wolf

"No problem" replied Pigma "Man, this really sucks!"

"What?" said Wolf

"Isn't it obvious?" came the voice of Leon Powalski "We got shot down by four rookies!"

"Yes, but if you'll notice, we drove the _Great Fox_ out of Fortuna. Leaving us a clear path to Corneria" Wolf calmly replied

"You think they went there?" said Kyle

"Almost certainly, my lord" said Wolf.

"Good, cause we're going there as soon as possible"

"But, the _Dire Wolf_ took heavy damage, along with the rest of the 4th" said Andrew.

"Which is why," Kyle continued "we're also bringing in the 3rd, 5th and 7th Venomian Hussars into Corneria. The 4th Imperial Guard, along with the _Dire Wolf_ will act as a reserve unit. Finally, the Imperials will have seized Corneria! The CDF cannot possibly mount a defense that can stop us, especially with Starfox and Black Wolf on the run. We move out in one hour, be there in two, and in 6 hours, Corneria will fall."

"Excellent" Wolf gloated.

Chapter 10

Deep in Sector Y, 1600 hours 

The _Great Fox_ emerged from hyperspace. But something was wrong, they were supposed to be at Corneria....

"I don't remember any green clouds surrounding Corneria..." said Falco

"Oh shit, we misjumped," said Slippy "We're in the middle of Sector Y...the worst part. Right in the friggin' nebula."

"Damn," replied Fox "Get us out of here!"

"System error!" said ROB "Electromagnetic radiation from the nebula has disabled hyperdrive and impulse engines; only maneuvering jets are available. Currently, _Great Fox_ is drifting at a speed of 100 m/s. Communications offline."

"Ahh!! We're all gonna die!!" Damien was panicking.

"Get a hold of yourself, damn it!" yelled Ed. "We're not gonna die. We just have to repair the engines."

"Repairs will take 12 hours" replied ROB

"We're screwed" said Karl

"You could be a little more optimistic" said Peppy

"We're reallyscrewed!" Karl replied.

"He's right," agreed Mark, "and with the state our fighters are in, they'll meet the same fate as the _Great Fox_"

"So, we'll just have to wait, and see what we can do to accelerate repairs" piped up Bill Grey. 

"Okay...but the radiation will not make things easy, we could try patching the hole in the hull near the engines to prevent more cosmic radiation from gunking up the hyperdrive" said Slippy.

"Good idea, let's prioritize that and use one of the ROV repair bots to patch it" said Fox

"OK, let's get to work, because even now, the Imperials are heading for Corneria." said Peppy

Suddenly it became deathly clear to the 9 pilots. If they couldn't escape, then the Imperials would overwhelm Corneria, and all would be lost.

"God damn...we're in deep shit" said Damien

Nobody said anything, but they knew he was right.

TWO HOURS LATER...

"Try it again ROB" said Slippy

The engines charged for a second, then died

"Propulsion still offline" said ROB

"DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!!" yelled Falco, pounding on the bridge controls

For the past two hours, they had spent time patching the hull around the engine and hyperdrive, but communications and primary propulsion were still down. They new they were running out of time. With each passing minute, the Imperial battle force was getting closer and closer to Corneria.

"It's not a total loss," said Slippy, "Short range sensors are online"

"A lot of good that does us!" yelled Damien

"Yeah, a whole lot of good!" agreed Falco

__

Great, though Ed _Just what the galaxy needs, another Falco_.

"Well, you are right about..." Slippy trailed off.

"What, what is it?" said Ed

"SRS just picked up a ship dead ahead"

"A ship in here?" queried Mark "How far?" 

"5 kilometers" Slippy replied "It's stationary, and it's not transmitting any enemy signals. The weird part is that it's transmitting a frequency used by Arspace Dynamics for their ships when they go through military trials. We'll have visual in 30 seconds, and we'll be at it in 50 seconds."

The 30 seconds seemed to take forever

"Punching up visual." said Slippy

Suddenly, through the green haze, a starship appeared. It was a huge, brick-like starship, although the front was angled off. Ed thought it could be at least 1.5 times as big as the _Great Fox_. It had 12 laser turrets, and two missile launchers. The ship also had what appeared to be two massive cannons, mounted one on each side. As they got closer, Ed could see the word "_Mjolnir_" emblazoned just below the bridge on the nose of the ship.

"Whoa" said Ed

"Firing retro rockets, and preparing to lay alongside it" said Slippy

"Wait, let's try docking with it instead" said Ed

"Good idea, it may have the parts we need" said Slippy

"No, I think Ed has a different agenda" said Fox

The _Great Fox _maneuvered until it brought its docking port alongside that of the _Mjolnir_. 

"ROB, keep the ship on alert, let us know if anything come up." Said Fox

"Affirmative" ROB replied

"Okay, let's get to the bridge of this "_Mjolnir_" and see if we can get it powered up." Said Ed.

With that remark, the nine pilots walked through the docking port, and on to the ghost vessel.

Chapter 11

CDF HQ, Corneria City, Corneria, 2000 hours 

"Anything at all from either Starfox of Black Wolf?" asked General Pepper

"Negative," said Commander Jason Kage "their last transmission was that they were jumping out; they just simply must have misjumped," the eagle continued, "Anyway, we have a bigger matter at hand"

"What?"

"The Imperials are on their way with a battleforce consisting of 3.5 space regiments, and God knows how many ground troops"

"Damn..."

"This is it then," said a lion standing with them in the War Room of the CDF HQ. Both Pepper and Kage turned to look at Prince Victor Davidson, the Prince of Corneria. The prince, although an adept warrior and a brilliant strategist, had a look on his face as if all was lost. "We're doomed. How much longer before they arrive?"

"Less than one hour"

"There is no way to get a similar force?"

"No, all we have are two regiments, and of course, Shadow Wing" said Kage, who was leader of Shadow Wing's Beta Company. Kage knew that Shadow Wing was not supposed to exist, at least to the general public, as it was essentially black-ops and honor guard, but times were desperate.

"The Shadow Wing could give us an edge, my Prince," said General Pepper. "All the members are some of the best, excluding our two missing units."

"Fine, they will stop any enemy forces that try to make a landing, or any enemy forces that enter low orbit. That way, they will remain anonymous, for now." The Prince ordered. 

"Yes, sir" said Jason Kage, and he walked out to prep his team for their assignment. 

__

Starfox, Black Wolf, wherever you are, thought Pepper_,_ _get here soon. We need you now._

***

__

Unnamed Mjolnir-class Battleship, Sector Y, 2015 hours

Ed led the way through the darkened corridors of the ship, blaster at the ready.

"The ship's in surprisingly good shape, it doesn't appear to have been affected by the EM radiation at all." Slippy remarked.

"That's good, cause if I'm right, we should be able to get this ship up and running." replied Ed as he opened the door marked "Bridge".

As the door swung open, the 9 pilots were greeted with a strange sight.

"Whoa, deja vu," said Bill

"Hey, this looks like the _Great Fox_ bridge, only a little bit bigger." Said Fox "It even has a ROB unit."

"Slippy, get it powered up" said Ed

"Got it" Slippy ran over and started powering it up. As soon as he was done the robot instantly got up, swept the area with his gaze, and then locked it on Ed.

"ROB-128 reporting for duty Lt. Commander Wallace." It said in a voice that seemed to have a slight touch of emotion. (Authors Note: Think Data from Star Trek: TNG)

A collective "what?" was shared by everyone on the bridge.

"I get, it, a more advanced ROB unit" said Karl.

"Apparently it thinks I'm the ranking officer," said Ed.

"Well, it only seems fair" said Mark, "it was your idea to board the ship"

"Okay, ROB-2, if I may call you that, since ROB-128 is too long," said Ed, "How long has this ship been here, and is it still working?"

"The ship has been here for little over a standard year, Lt. Commander, and it still does work, in fact, life support has been online all the time." said ROB-2.

"Well, duh!!" yelled Falco

"Quiet;" said Ed "Listen ROB-2, just call me Ed, I don't like the formal rank too much. Can you help us get this ship powered up so that we can help repair the _Great Fox_?"

"Yes, Ed," said ROB-2 "Anything to help another ROB unit, especially the one that controls the legendary _Great Fox_"

"Your praise is noted" came ROB's voice over the comm.

"Wait, communications were fixed?" said Slippy

"Yes, as soon as I was powered up, I scanned _Great Fox_, determined the problem, and launched my auto repair drones, you should have everything fixed within the hour" said ROB-2

"Even the hyperdrive?" asked Falco

"Even that" answered ROB-2.

"All right, let's get this ship powered up and on the move, we have to get to Corneria as soon as possible" said Ed.

"Okay, Ed" said ROB-2. "but since the ship hasn't been fully online in over a year, I'll need help with startup. I need one person each at the Tactical, Engineering, Communication, and Sensor control consoles."

"I'll take Tactical" Ed said

"Engineering" said Mark

"Comm" said Damien

"Sensor, I guess" said Karl.

In a few seconds, they were all seated at the stations while Starfox and Bill Grey looked on with great interest. 

"Okay, first I'll activate the power, hyperdrive and impulse systems. When I give the order," ROB-2 said to Mark, "Flip all the switches under "core power" and "engine power" to on, but flip them in numerical order.

"Got it" Mark replied.

"Bringing power online," said ROB-2 as the normal lights began to come on, "Hyperdrive ready to charge, Impulse engines charging...NOW!!"

Mark flipped all the switches he was told too and a thunderous roar, signifying the startup of the _Mjolnir's_ powerful fusion core echoed through the ship.

"All engineering systems nominal," ROB-2 said. "Preparing to activate weapons. Ed, you have to flip all the switches on the particle laser turrets, missile launchers, and omni-cannons, to 'on'"

"Omni-cannons?" asked Ed as he started flipping the switches

"I'll explain later. After you flip all of the previous switches on, you must flip up the 'Master Arm' switch and push the button underneath."

"Got, it, preparing to activate master arm sequence," replied Ed as he pushed the 'Master Arm' button

"All weapons online and fully functional. To activate sensors and the rest of the communications, flip the power switches to on"

"Got it," said Karl

"Way ahead of you," said Damien

They flipped the switches

"Sensors and Communications online. All systems, nominal" said ROB-2. "Repairs on _Great Fox_ 95% complete, upgrades on ROB system complete, hyperdrive online, impulse engines online"

"Excellent," said Fox "now we can get out of here!"

"Incoming transmission from General Pepper, to _Great Fox_," said ROB-2, "Preparing to transmit to here"

the comm activated and General Pepper's face appeared, he looked distressed.

"Starfox, where the hell are you?!"

"General, we had a misjump and wound up in the Sector-Y Nebula," said Fox "We've only recently reestablished hyperdrive"

"Well, hurry up," General Pepper yelled frantically "we've picked up 3.5 Venomian regiments of spacecraft moving in on the planet, we can't hold them off for long! Hurry!!"

The comm went silent.

"Ok, emergency vector jump to Corneria, and get it right this time, ROB" Fox ordered

"ROB-2, allow Starfox to debark, and move our fighters into the _Mjolnir's _hangar bay. Then jump to Corneria" said Ed

"OK, Ed" said ROB-2, "One more thing, this ship needs a name."

"umm...." said Mark

"I got it, how about..._Black Knight_" Ed replied

"Sounds good to me" said Damien

"Ok," said ROB-2 "Ship's name is _Black Knight_. Now get your fighters into the hangar bay and we can move out to Corneria"

Five minutes later, everybody was ready, and the _Great Fox _and the _Black Knight_ jumped out to Corneria.

Chapter 12

__

High Orbit, Corneria, 1845 hours

The Imperial Fleet was slowly making its way to Corneria, and now was engaging the desperate resistance fleet set up by the CDF. From the bridge of the _Saruzin-II _battlecruiser _Cabal_, Kyle Kerrigan watched with delight. He was right in his estimate of the weakness of the enemy guard fleet. He knew that it would take less than 2 hours to break through. Actually, that was two hours for the rest of his fleet to break through, he already had a covert mission on its way to Corneria. He watched as two _Aggressor _carriers destroyed a Cornerian _Justice_ frigate.

"Lord Kerrigan," said Captain Riley Blaine "We are braking through their first line of defense, losses are minimal"

"Excellent," said Kyle, "Continue the assault, leave nothing in our path. "Is there any sign of Starfox or Black Wolf?"

"Negative."

__

Odd, thought Kyle, _They should be here._ "Keep an eye out for them, Captain."

"Yes, sir"

***

"Brace for impact!"

Admiral Ken Collins braced against his Captain's chair as two Cobra Torpedoes slammed into the hull of the battleship _Guardian_. The ship was powerful, but it couldn't withstand this punishment much longer. All around him, his fleet desperately tried to stop the Imperials from breaking through to Corneria. However, all they were doing right now was delaying the inevitable.

"We're losing hull integrity...AUGHHH!!!"

A blast of light and sound on the _Guardian_'s right signified the death of the _Defender_-class Cruiser _Bastion_. The _Bastion _became the 5th Cornerian capital ship to go down in the past 15 minutes of fighting. Admiral Collins looked around, and saw how hopeless the battle was. He saw Cornerian and Imperial warships trading shots as fighters on both sides zoomed around firing lasers, missiles, and bombs. The Admiral knew that the Imperial fleet was 25% larger than his own now, and the Imperials were taking every advantage of that. For instance, the _Guardian_ was locked in combat with 4 _Zeram-II_-class cruisers and numerous fighters. An Imperial Invader III fighter flew across the bridge's view screens...and was shredded apart by laser fire.

__

One down, thought Collins, _another 1000 to go_.

"Any sign of Husky and Bulldog squadron?" he asked

"Negative," said General Pepper, who was still at the planetary HQ, "they're still at least an hour out."

"What about Starfox?"

"Unknown"

__

Just great, thought Collins,_ I could really use their help now._

"Picking up intermittent radar contact from a hyperspace entry point" said the Sensors officer

"Where?" asked Collins

"About 10km away, but we can't get a signal lock, there's too much interference. All that we know is that it's friendly"

***

The _Black Knight _emerged from hyperspace at the edge of the battle, alongside the _Great Fox_.

"We've arrived at Corneria, the battle is 10 km away, we are on the Cornerian side of the fight." Said 

ROB-2.

"Good" said Ed. "Can you now explain to me what the omni-cannons are?"

"Certainly. The omni-cannons are the massive guns on the side of the ship. They can fire super powerful lasers, autocannon, gauss cannon, which is like a railgun, or plasma. These can be selected easily from the targeting control panel for the cannons. Let me bring it up at the tactical station."

A control panel appeared in front of Ed. It said "Cannon 1" on the left and Cannon 2" on the right. Beneath each cannon heading was a choice of ordinance. Also viewable were the targeting reticles for each cannon.

"Okay, I'm loading Cannon 1 with Gauss cannon ammo, and Cannon 2 will be plasma." Said Ed

"Where do you want the shots to go?"

Ed zoomed in the viewscreen, to show a besieged Cornerian battleship, the _Guardian_, currently under attack by 4 _Zeram-II_ cruisers. The cruisers were basically _Zerams_ with twin torpedo launchers.

"Fire the Gauss at the lead _Zeram II_ on the screen. Fire the plasma at that _Aggressor_ squad trying to smash its way through the left battle line." Said Ed.

The reticles moved to lock on to their targeted ships.

"Targets acquired," said ROB-2 "You may fire when ready"

"FIRE!"

The left omni-cannon fired a supersonic Gauss slug, then the right cannon fired its superheated plasma shot.

***

"Fire all forward lasers and missiles!"

Ken Collins watched as the _Guardian _opened up on the leftmost _Zeram-II _cruiser. The twenty laser bolts burned through the enemy cruiser's weakened hull, blasting huge chunks of armor and atmosphere into space. The missiles slammed into the bridge of the ship, shearing it off, then the missiles hit the fusion reactor. In mere seconds the core went critical, tearing the ship apart, except for the mangled bridge which spun off into the vacuum of space.

"Target destroyed, Admiral!" said the Tactical officer.

"Good, one down, three to go" said Collins

The _Zeram-II_s struck back furiously, as torpedoes and lasers slammed into the _Guardian's _hull. Sparks shot everywhere from ruined consoles on the bridge as warning sirens went off everywhere.

"Hull integrity failing! Shields out! Half our forward guns are gone!" said the panicked TO. "One more torpedo hit like that and we're done for!"

Collins watched as the three enemy cruisers turned to lock their guns on his dying ship

__

So this is it, Collins thought as the torpedoes started to launch,_ I'm going to die, and at the same time, fail_.

Then ,what appeared to be a blue-white corkscrewing jet trail, slammed into the bow of the lead _Zeram-II_, and passed through emerging on the other side. The shot hit the armed Cobra torpedo on the right side of the ship, almost instantaneously detonating it. The ship spun wildly as its other Cobra launched, but pointed right at another _Zeram-II_. The torpedo hit the bridge of the cruiser head on, turning it into a twisted pile of slag, and caused that ship's torpedoes to miss cleanly. Meanwhile the cruiser that had been shot continued to explode as the other torpedoes detonated; the ship snapped in half, and the rear half slammed into the two torpedoes that the third _Zeram-II_ had launched. The torpedoes skewered the fusion core, blowing it apart along with what was left of the lead _Zeram-II._

Collins was bewildered. Not only had he not died, but someone or something had taken out two of the ships attacking him. As an added bonus, none of the torpedoes even scratched his ship. Collins almost immediately pulled himself together and ordered, "Fire all weapons on that last cruiser!!!"

The lasers and missiles devoured the last _Zeram-II_, which was ripped end to end by the shots, and broke apart.

"Sir, look to port!" shouted the TO

Collins looked, and saw a glowing ball of plasma slam into a wing of 5 _Aggressor_-class attack Carriers. The shot hit the middle carrier, which was immediately vaporized. The plasma exploded, and the shockwave washed over the remaining carriers. Two were caught in the blast and were roasted as the intense heat from the plasma melted armor and boiled away the very structure of the ship, leaving only black, burning, dead hulks. The other two were badly singed by the blast. Any fighter caught in the blast had been vaporized or burned to a crisp.

"What the hell? Who did that?" Collins asked

"I can answer that." Came a voice over the comm "This is Lt. Commander Ed Wallace of Black Wolf, and CO of the _Mjolnir_-class battleship _Black Knight_. Starfox and my squadron are on site and are here to assist. We're 8 km out from the main battle, on your left."

"Sensors, can you confirm?" asked Collins

"Yes, sir, they are there, and they did fire those shots, judging by the trajectory."

"Thanks for the help, Black Wolf" Collins said to Ed. "It looks like you showed up just in time. Get in the fight as soon as you can, and we should be able to drive the Imperials out!"

"Roger, that. We're launching our Arwings, the capships should be there in about a minute. Wallace, out" 

Chapter 12

Same area as before, only 5 minutes later 

"A Cornerian warship did WHAT?!?!?!"

Kyle Kerrigan was infuriated. He had not expected heavy resistance from planetary defense, and now a battalion's worth of capital ships and fighters had been destroyed instantaneously. 

"Sir, about 5 minutes ago two warships emerged from hyperspace," said the _Cabal's_ tactical officer. "One of them was the _Great Fox_, the other was marked as an _Mjolnir_. Apparently the _Mjolnir _fired two shots, one of them a railgun or, gauss, slug, and another was a form of explosive, or siege, plasma. The gauss slug destroyed two of the _Zeram-IIs _attacking the Cornerian command battleship. The battleship then destroyed the surviving cruiser. The plasma hit Clawhammer group, which composed of 5 _Aggressor _carriers and about 60 fighters. The plasma, and subsequent explosion, destroyed 3 carriers, damaged the other two, and obliterated 45 fighters. Clawhammer is now being overrun by two _Defender_-class cruisers The left flank is going to fall, sir"

"Any idea on the command identity of that _Mjolnir_?" Kyle asked as he tried to avoid shooting everyone on the bridge of the _Cabal_.

"Actually, we do have an idea" said the Communications Officer. "The _Mjolnir _sent this transmission to the Cornerian command battleship, the _Guardian_. The transmission is a bit garbles, as we received it from a reflect transmission off of the last _Zeram-II_, which at this point was dying and the comm equipment, along with the rest of the bridge, was torn apart. Here's the transmission"

The static laden transmission played

"This buzz Ed Wallace snap Black Wolf buzz CO buzz _Mjolnir _crack battleship _Black Knight_"

The transmission abruptly ended.

"That's all we got...sir?"

Kyle went ashen faced, and looked as if he was going to have a heart attack. Suddenly he let out a roar of rage and backhanded the comm officer. The comm officer flew backwards and was knocked unconscious against his chair.

"GOD DAMN IT!!!!" Kyle yelled "Not only did Starfox and BlackWolf show up to try to mess up my plans, but Ed Wallace has come into the battle with a powerful warship at his disposal!! Where is the _Black Knight _now?!"

Kyle's nervous TO replied "They are 1 km away form the main battle line, we think they're moving in to get a better shot. The _Great Fox _is following them."

Kyle thought for a moment. _If I can destroy those ships, it would break the Cornerian's morale. But I still should pull back the 4th Imperial Guard._

Kyle opened a comm channel to the _Dire Wolf_

"Wolf, I want you and the rest of the 4th to fall back to Fortuna."

"What?" said Wolf "Why?"

"Apparently Starfox and Black Wolf have shown up, and Black Wolf has a super-powerful warship that could destroy the 4th in one shot if possible."

"At least let me and my squad stay" Wolf said.

"No, too risky, besides, I can handle things without your help."

"Very well, my lord" Wolf replied. "Attention 4th Imperial Guard, prepare for emergency hyperspace back to Fortuna"

The 4th jumped outsystem

__

Ok, thought Kyle,_ now to take care of Starfox and Black Wolf_. Kyle opened up a channel to Slasher Company from his command brigade.

"This is Slasher Command ship _Eviscerater_." Said Commander Kevin Marduk, who captained the _Intimidator _class warship.

"Marduk, I want you and the rest of Slasher Company to take out the _Black Knight _and the _Great Fox_. Be as relentless and ruthless as possible, take no prisoners." Kyle ordered

"As you wish"

"Umm, sir, our covert operation just called in, they're under heavy attack from stealth ships" said the revived comm officer

"No need to worry," said Kyle, "we'll get through."

Very low Cornerian atmosphere (about 30,000 feet or less) 

"This is dropship _Antrim_, we're under attack! Hull integrity at 70%!"

The _Antrim _was part of the Imperial's covert attack force sent to Corneria to steal data from the secret weapons labs scattered about the main continent of Corneria, called Corneus. 30 dropships and 15 attack shuttles had been sent in, but a mysterious force was destroying all of them. Already the _Antrim's _escort had been destroyed, along with the attack shuttle they also had to escort.

"Where's that fire coming from?!" asked the Captain of the _Antrim_.

"It's coming form all angles, I think we're under attack by stealth fighters" replied his tactical officer

Just then a _Phantron_-class stealth cruiser appeared in the forward viewscreen escorted in by 12 dark gray Arwings.

"JUST fighters?"

"Couldn't be sure, but all of those craft are not appearing on radar. We can't get a decent weapons lock."

"You don't need any kind of a lock! They're right in front of us! FIRE! FIRE!! FIRE!!!" yelled the captain

The _Antrim's _forward weapons opened up on the attackers, but the shots missed cleanly.

The Cornerians responded with multiple laser and missile hits. A loud explosion resonated throughout the hull of the _Antrim_.

"We've lost engine's one and two! We're falling fast, we can't make a safe landing! Ground impact in 10 seconds!" shouted the TO.

"OH SHIT!!!!" yelled the captain.

10 seconds later, the _Antrim_ slammed into the surface of Corneria, causing a massive explosion, and a magnitude .5 earthquake.

***

"Splash another covert attack squad!" yelled Sergeant Jack Vong, callsign Shadow-Beta-7.

"_Phantron _copies, nice work. That makes 29 squads destroyed." said Captain Robert Smirnov, who commanded the _Phantron_-class light cruiser of the same name. Shadow Wing had preformed their assigned task nicely, keeping any Imperial invasion form occuring.

"I'm picking up a distress beacon from Secret Weapons Lab 3" said Ivan Marlowski, callsign Shadow-Beta-11. "They're under attack, and enemy troops have infiltrated the lab! Apparently a light cruiser and an attack shuttle landed and debarked troops!"

"How..." said Jenna Sandoval (Shadow-Beta-4)

"They must have dropped in using stealth ships" said Katya Williams (Shadow-Beta-3)

"I agree," said Jason Kage (Shadow-Beta-1), "we must set up a perimeter around the lab to prevent the Imperials from escaping."

"Shouldn't we go in and attack?" asked Ivan.

"No, too dangerous, and from what the beacon tells us, we would lose quickly in such a fight. No, we set up a perimeter, with the _Phantron_, and tell General Pepper. He'll probably give us some help." Said Jason

A flurry of "yes, sirs" came over the commline as the other members of Shadow Wing's Beta Company acknowledged their Commander's orders.

Chapter 13

_Space, Corneria's high orbit, 1 minute after the last chapter._

Black Knight, Hangar Bay 

Ed put on his shades and began to start up his Arwing. "ROB-2," he said "Make sure you don't hit any friendlies with the omni-cannons."

"OK, Ed" said ROB-2 "Three things, one is that there is a small fleet headed our way. It consists of 40 fighters, 4 _Harlock-IIs_, two _Intimidators_, and one _Zeram-II_."

"Take care of it, and protect the _Great Fox_" said Ed

"Got it. Secondly, Husky and Bulldog Squadron have arrived. I am giving their position to Bill Grey so that he can link up with them."

"Thanks" said Bill.

"Lastly, I gave your Arwings some new weapons, feel free to try them out"

"Got it," Ed replied. "All fighters check in."

"Ready to rock!" said Mark

"Let's kick some Imperial ass!" yelled Damien

"I'm ready" said Karl

"Fox, we are ready for launch" Ed said to Fox

"Acknowledged," said Fox, "so are we. You can launch at any time."

From the _Black Knight_, the four black Arwings of Black Wolf flew out of the hangar. At the same time, the _Great Fox _launched Starfox's Arwings, and Bill Grey's Wolfhound fighter. The 9 fighters flew towards the raging battle 1 km away.

"Okay, Husky and Bulldog squadron, give attack assistance to the _Black Knight_" Bill Grey ordered.

"ROB-2, use only the gauss cannons on the enemy capital ships" Ed ordered

"Affirmative" said ROB-2.

The _Black Knight _turned to face the attacking fleet, and fired two Gauss slugs. One destroyed a _Harlock-II_ frigate, punching a gigantic hole through the ships lateral line, while another badly damaged one of the two _Intimidators_. Ed watched as Husky and Bulldog squadron pounced on the wounded cruiser, firing missiles and Nova Bombs. The ship split into three pieces as the high explosives detonated and tore through the _Intimidator's _hull.

"Scratch one _Intimidator_," said Bill

"Thanks for the help" said ROB-2.

"Okay, Black Wolf," Ed said "Let's tear up these Imperials"

The 4 Arwings moved in on the attacking fleet

Ed looked at the new weapons loadout ROB-2 had given him. The hyper lasers were still there, as well as the Nova Bombs, but now there was a new weapon mounted on his fighter. Apparently it was a new missile called a Maverick Torpedo. Ed selected one, and it gave him an ordinance choice of either "Normal", "Flechette", or "MIRV". Ed selected "Flechette" and dove in at the fleet. A squadron of 10 Invader IIIs came after him.

"Let's see what this Maverick can do!" said Ed as he locked onto and fired on the middle fighter. 

Ed watched as the Maverick Torpedo rocketed out from his Arwing's underbelly. When it was about 5 feet from the targeted fighter, the torpedo exploded, and about 100 tiny needle-like missiles flew out, slamming into the 10 Invader IIIs. The needles tore the fighters to shreds.

"Holy shit! That rocked!" Ed yelled as he let out a chuckle of satisfaction. "Now let's try the MIRV".

Ed set his second torpedo to MIRV, and flew in at the three remaining _Harlock II _frigates. Ed blasted attacking fighters out of his way and fired the MIRV at the nearest frigate. The torpedo flew out, then exploded into 5 more missiles that tracked and hit two of the frigates. Both frigates couldn't take the strain of the blasts and broke up. The last _Harlock-II_ tried to take at shot at Ed, but another black Arwing flew in and riddled the enemy _Harlock-II_ full of holes with a Flechette Maverick.

"Nice shot Damien" said Ed

"Thanks," Damien replied "These new torpedoes kick ass don't they?"

"Damn straight" Mark interjected. "I just killed 20 fighters in one shot!"

"Stay cool, Mark" Ed said "We still have to finish these guys off"

"Scratch that _Zeram_" said Karl "Amazing what the MIRV torpedo does!"

"Ok, all fighters, concentrate on the last _Intimidator_!" Ed ordered. 

The fighters flew in. Ed released a normal Maverick and watched as it penetrated about 5 feet of armor plating before detonating, destroying the ship's Mega Laser cannon, and leaving a massive blast crater. Ed saw his squad's fighters, plus the _Black Knight_, move in to attack.

"The ship has nowhere to run." Ed laughed.

***

"Sir, the _Eviscerater_ is reporting that Slasher Group has been destroyed."

"WHAT?!" yelled Kyle "Put Captain Marduk on the screen."

The tiger, along with the bridge of the _Eviscerater _appeared onscreen. Through the bridge, Kyle could see that the ship was being assaulted by a mysterious warship, which he believed was the _Black Knight_. The _Black Knight _was slowly moving closer to Captain Marduk's ship, all the while firing its particle lasers and shredding fighters. 

"Lord Kerrigan, we're taking heavy fire! Slasher Group has been wiped out!" 

"How is this possible?" Kyle demanded.

"Apparently, the Arwings have new weapons as well. They have torpedoes that have shrapnel and MIRV effects." Said Marduk.

An explosion rocked the bridge

"We've lost deck 13!" yelled the _Eviscerater's _TO. "Hull strength at 22%!"

"The _Black Knight _is charging its cannons!"

"Evasive action!" yelled Marduk

Kyle watched as the _Eviscerater _tried to evade the _Black Knight's _deadly Gauss Cannons, but it failed. The first shot connected with the weakened forward section, tearing it away. As the cruiser fishtailed, the second Gauss slug slammed into the bridge. Kyle saw the slug tear through the forward viewscreens and decapitate Captain Marduk. As the tiger's headless body fell to the ground, the bridge exploded. The video feed cut out to show the ship explode in a flash of light. 

"So," came a mocking voice over the comm. "You like our new weapons?"

"Ed?" asked Kyle "How are you doing this?"

"It wasn't too hard to hijack your vidcom signal." Ed replied "Anyway, I'm giving you two choices now. You can either get the hell away form here and not come back, or I'll blast you into oblivion."

"NEVER!!!" Kyle yelled "I still have enough ships to defeat you!"

"Actually, if you look at your sensors, you don't!"

Kyle looked, and saw the dots representing friendly craft start to disappear rapidly. 

"Sigma Battalion, What the hell is going on?!" Kyle demanded

"This is _Zeram-Sigma-4_, we're being overrun! Starfox is wiping us out. They have backup from Husky and Bulldog Squadron on site! We can't hold them! AUGH!!!!"

There was the sound of an explosion, and then the hissing of static. Another Imperial warship destroyed. Kyle was worried. Sigma Battalion, one of his most powerful units, was being wiped out.

"Caine, what is your opinion?"

"I think we should fall back and regroup" Said General Caine.

"I think you're crazy!" Kyle replied, "Command Group, full charge!!"

The _Cabal_ and it's escorts, consisting of 2 _Aggressors_, 2_ Harlock-IIs_, and 2 _Zeram-IIs_, moved forward to attack Black Wolf.

"The _Black Knight _is charging it's cannons!" said the Tactical Officer.

"Prepare to evade" said Kyle.

"Shot fired, it's a plasma shot! Impact in 10 seconds!"

"Evade, full reverse!" Kyle shouted.

The _Cabal_ desperately tried to avoid the shot, but all that it succeeded in doing was avoiding taking the hit head-on. Rather, the shot exploded right in front of the ship, causing devastating effects. The _Cabal _rocked backwards as the plasma shockwave ripped apart armor and hull plating on the bow of the ship. Loud explosions were heard as an _Aggressor _and a _Zeram-II_ that got too close to the blast were ripped up.

"This is Escort 5," came a frantic voice over the comm. "We're breaking up, AIEEE!!!"

There was a loud squealing noise added to the sounds of the bridge crew screaming as the bridge of the _Zeram_-_II _(Escort 5) burned up along with the communications equipment.

"We've lost escorts 4 and 5!" said the TO. Escorts 2 and 3 reporting heavy damage!"

"What about the _Cabal_?" Kyle asked.

"Forward shields offline, for good. Forward hull integrity at 34%. Overall hull integrity at 67%. Main Hangar destroyed."

"Prepare to launch all remaining fighters from the flight deck's catapult launcher."

"Lord Kerrigan, this is insane!!!" screamed General Caine "We have to retreat!!! Overall forces are down to little more than a regiment! This...is...SUICIDE!!!"

Kyle had heard enough, he whipped out his Magnum and leveled it at the panther's head.

"One more outburst like that, and I'll blow your head off. Do your job! Man your post!" Kyle growled.

Caine sat down at the communications console. He instantly sent a secret burst transmission to his stealth covert ops team at Secret Weapons Lab 3. They reported back mission phase one complete. He then sent a transmission to General Stienburg. It simply stated "Kerrigan outliving usefulness, move up timetable."

Just as he sent the transmission a Gauss cannon shot slammed into the _Cabal_. Sparks shot from a few consoles on the bridge.

"Flight deck destroyed. Hull integrity at 56% Weapons at 43%" said the TO

"Crap." Kyle responded. "Order all forces to get out of here! Set hyperspace coordinates to Macbeth!"

"Yes sir" said the Tactical and Navigation officers

Kyle walked over to Caine, and shoved the magnum under his throat.

"Has the stealth team finished phase one?"

Caine weakly nodded.

"Good." Kyle put the magnum away "You may have been right this time Caine, but don't forget, I make the rules; you break the rules, you die."

Kyle stomped off, and Caine finally managed to start breathing again.

As the _Cabal_ and the surviving Imperial warships jumped out, Caine let a small grin play across his muzzle. The failed invasion of Corneria was only a minor setback. He and Stienburg had bigger plans, ones that Kyle didn't even know about. Caine would let Kyle think he was in charge for now, but all of that would end soon.

Chapter 13

See previous chapter, then add 30 minutes to the time. 

"Confirmed, HQ, all Imperial Forces have jumped out, or died trying." Ed Wallace reported. The last bit he added because Damien had destroyed a _Harlock_-II frigate during the Imperial retreat.

"Excellent Work!!" said General Pepper.

"Thank you"

Ed stood along, with his squadron, stood on the bridge of the _Black Knight_. They were talking to General Pepper and Prince Davidson that the threat to Corneria had been stopped.

"We can't thank you four enough for what you've done." The prince started.

"Wait," said Ed "It wasn't just us. You have to give credit to everybody who fought here and died here."

"He's right." Said Mark

"We are quite aware that credit should be given where it's due. But the fact remains, that you four, and the _Black Knight_, racked up the most kills." Said the Prince. "Also, Admiral Collins personally wants to thank you for saving his life, and his ship. So he's going to promote you four. The paperwork will take about a day, but I'd like to tell you now. Ed, you're being promoted to Commander. Mark, you're moving up to Lieutenant Commander. Damien and Karl, you're both being promoted to Lieutenant."

"Kudos to us!" yelled Damien.

"That's not all." General Pepper said. "You four, along with 50 others, including Starfox, Husky and Bulldog Squadrons, are being given the CDF Medal of Honor. The ceremony will be tomorrow afternoon, at 1300 hours." 

"Thanks, this is amazing!" Ed replied.

"You four have worked hard today, so get some rest, you may need it in case we decide to launch any counterattacks."

"Yes, sir"

"There will be a meeting at 0900 hours tomorrow. See you then." Said General Pepper,

The comm clicked off.

"You heard him, get some rest" Ed ordered

"'Bout friggin' time" Mark said.

The four pilots went to their quarters and got some much-deserved sleep.

***

Next Day, 0630 hours 

"INCOMING MESSAGE!!!! ALPHA PRIORITY!!!"

The blaring of the comm alert system jolted Ed awake. He toppled out of bed, and manged to stand up, despite being tired. He went over and hit the receive button.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?!" Ed shouted

"0630 hours" said General Pepper

Ed's demeanor instantly changed. "Sorry General, " he apologized. "I didn't know it was you"

"That's okay. We need you and the rest of the squadron down here at the command center for an important meeting and briefing."

"Wait…I thought the meeting was at 0900?"

"Something came up, and we need you now instead."

"Um…okay"

"See you on the surface. General Pepper out"

As the comm shut off, Ed wondered how he was going to wake the rest of his squad. He could just have ROB-2 send a wake up call, but Ed had a better, albeit cruel, idea. He activated the broadband channel for the ship's intercom, drew his custom-made service pistol, and loaded a blank round.

"This is your commander speaking to all personnel, it's time to WAKE UP!!!" Ed shouted into the microphone as he pulled the trigger. The shot resonated throughout the ship and the intercom.

For about a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the comm flared up with his squad's cursing.

"What the f**k was that for?" Mark yelled

"It's only 0630!" Damien chimed in.

"Jesus Christ, I was trying to sleep!" Finished Karl

"Sorry about that," Ed said "but apparently something has come up and General Pepper needs us at the HQ, now. So get dressed, get something to eat, and get to your fighters."

His squad wearily acknowledged. Ed shut off the comm, and walked over to the food synthesizer to go get some breakfast, and a Coke®. He was going to need the caffeine if he wanted to stay awake through the meeting.

Chapter 14

Corneria Defense Force (CDF) HQ, 0645 hours 

Ed walked into the briefing room, and Mark, Damien, and Karl filed in behind him as he took his seat. Ed could also see that Starfox had been called to this emergency meeting.

"First of all" said General Pepper, "here are your new rank symbols" The General passed each pilot a white envelope. Ed opened his, and pinned the two bars with a star in the middle, representing commander, to his flight jacket. Ed could see that Starfox had, coincidentally, gotten the same ranks as his squad. Ed wondered why Starfox still got promoted although they were outside of the Cornerian Military.

"Secondly, I've called you here for a good reason. It appears a small Imperial attack squad, using stealth technology, landed on Corneria and took control of Secret Weapons Lab 3. The Lab is located here, in the Garuda Desert."

Everyone watched as the map on the screen moved to target the Lab.

"We don't know why the Imperials captured this Lab, but they used a full battalion of troops, plus an attack shuttle and a light stealth cruiser to do so. It's obvious they're after something. What we want you 8 to do is get into the lab, find out what the Imperials are up to, and stop them by any means necessary."

"8 of us versus over a battalion of force?" asked Falco, "that's crazy!"

"No, it isn't" continued Pepper. "You'll be getting assistance from a squad of our military forces. They have a light cruiser with them. They will meet you at these coordinates outside the Lab's sensor range in 30 minutes. You should have enough time to get equipped and fly down there.

The map identified the coordinates.

"These coordinates have been given to your Arwing's navigation computers." The General finished "Any questions?"

"Yes" said Ed "After we stop the imperials, should we capture any?"

"It would be nice if you could capture one of their two ships, so we can find out about their military status." answered General Pepper "Any further questions?"

Nobody spoke up.

"Okay then, dismissed."

END OF PART TWO

Please Read and Review!

DISCLAIMER: I own Shadow Wing, all members of it, and the _Phantron _class cruiser, which is not the same as the Phantron boss from the original Starfox. The _Intimidator_-class warship, the _Defender_-class Cruiser, and the _Guardian _battle ship (_Leviathan-_class)are mine. So are Admiral Ken Collins and Prince Victor Davidson. Star Wolf © Nintendo. The new versions of the _Saruzin_, _Zeram_, and _Harlock_ are part Nintendo (name and design) and part mine (upgrades). The _Aggressor_ is my name for the class of Attack Carrier in SF64 (Corneria "true" boss). Coke® is a registered trademark of Coca-Cola.


	3. A shadow of things to come

Shattered Lylat Prelude: Enter Black Wolf: Part 3

Disclaimers: See previous disclaimers

Author's Note: I decided to seem a little more creative, and changed the name of Corneria's main continent to Corneus. I've also decided that the year is not 2401, and the year is 2550 (see appendix). But it is still one year after the Lylat War (SF64)

Chapter 15

__

Black Knight, low Cornerian orbit, 0650 hours

Ed sorted through the items he was bringing on the mission. He first took his two Omni-Falcons, pistols that could carry any kind of firearm ammo, and loaded them with .45 caliber rounds. He pocketed two extra clips for each pistol. Ed Then fastened on his flak jacket, and donned his flight jacket over it. Ed then decided to set off for the armory, to see if there were any more weapons there. As it was, he didn't think two pistols could stop a regiment single-handedly. When he got to the armory, he saw that Mark, Damien and Karl were also there.
"What's going on?" he asked

"We're trying to get into the armory, but ROB-2 will not open the door without your consent." Mark replied

"Stupid robot." Ed muttered. He opened a channel to the bridge. "ROB-2, open the armory"

"Yes, sir" the robot replied

"One more thing" Ed said "If Mark, Damien, Karl, or any members of Starfox ask for the armory to be unlocked, do it."

"Ok, sir" ROB-2 replied

The door locks swung free with a massive _thunk!_ And the door panel read "unlocked"

"Well, let's see what's in here" Mark said as he opened the door.

The 4 pilots looked into the fairly large room. From what they could see, they saw 20 pristine K21 Assault Rifles, 10 Rocket Launchers, another 10 Sniper Rifles, another 10 shotguns, and 15 laser rifles. There were also numerous handguns, both ballistic and laser, mounted on the side walls. Ed could also see that there were many crates of grenades, C4, and sticky mines. There were also scopes and laser sights arranged in boxes near the handguns.

"Wow, there's enough here to start a small war" said Damien

"Or end one" Karl added.

"Ok, let's only take what we think we'll need." Said Ed "Don't take any rocket launchers, because we could end up hurting ourselves in close quarters. When you're done, meet me in the hangar."

As they set out gathering weapons and ammo, Ed grabbed a K21 and 3 clips for it. He loaded the rifle, and slung it over his back. Ed also grabbed two frag grenades, and strapped them to his belt. He then walked out of the armory, and made his way to the hangar.

Five minutes later, the rest of his squad joined him. Ed saw that Mark had also taken along his two Omni-Falcons, and his .357 Magnum revolver with scope. In addition to that, Mark had also taken a K21 and 4 frag grenades. Damien had taken a K21, a 9mm service pistol, and 2 frags. Karl had armed himself with a shotgun, a magnum, and 2 frags.

"Everybody ready?" he asked, although it was redundant.

His three squadmates nodded _Good, thought Ed, they're all fearless, ready to get the job done._

"Okay," he said, "let's move out!" Ed donned his shades and opened the cockpit of his Arwing.

The four Arwings rocketed out into space.

***

__

Stealth Cruiser Phantron, _At the same time_, _Undisclosed location_

"You can't be serious!"

Ivan Marlowski's shout quieted the _Phantron's _ready room. Upon hearing that Shadow Wing's Alpha Company would not be helping out, but instead 8 pilots of the regular line army, Ivan was infuriated.

"I _am_ serious, Corporal Marlowski," said Jason Kage. "Starfox and Black Wolf are the best of the best, next to us. We saw what they did in space, and I think they can help us out here."

"But," said Katya "They aren't even supposed to know of our existence! At least, not yet."

"The fact is, Katya" Jason responded "They might already know."

"What?!" Ivan yelled "How is this possible?"

"It's simple" said Jason "Six months ago, Commander Wallace and Lt. Commander Rendar hacked the CDF mainframe, they had just entered the section outlining Shadow Wing when we managed to cut them out. We don't know if we know about us entirely, but they may have an idea."

"Damn…" said Jack Vong

Jason looked over. Jack usually didn't say much, so when the Komodo Dragon talked, it usually was for a good reason. However, Jason couldn't figure out why Jack seemed so worried about a break-in into the system.

"I think," Jenna said. "That we should use them. Starfox needs no explanation to their skill, and the four Black Wolf pilots are excellent marksmen according to their academy records."

"However," Jack said, "we take overall command of the situation, thereby cutting them out of any classified info…"

"So most of our existence remains secret." Finished Ivan. "I'm convinced."

"Exactly," said Jason. "But we should be friendly to them. I really don't like our view in the army as a bunch of anti-social, trained assassins."

"I agree," Jenna replied.

"So do I," spoke up a lynx sitting in the back row. His name was Dante Davidson (Callsign Shadow-Beta-8), son of Prince Victor. He had joined the CDF to give better relations between the Army and the Royal Family, and was later selected for Shadow Wing. "I gave up a lot of my social life to be in this unit, and I kind of want it back."

Nobody else had any objections. A lot of them agreed with Dante. The Shadow Wing was so secret, some pilots hadn't been allowed to fraternize with regular CDF forces.

"Good," Jason said, "let's move out, we need to meet our help on this mission, and Ivan, try to be friendly"

"Ok…" Ivan said begrudgingly.

__

2 miles east of Secret Weapons Lab 3, _Garuda Desert, Corneus, Corneria, 0715 hours 2550 AD_

Flying under the radar, 4 white Arwings and 4 black Arwings landed silently behind a cliff only 2 miles east of Secret Weapons Lab 3. The Lab was just beyond the cliff, situated on a 120 square mile plateau. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon as Ed cracked open his Arwing's cockpit and stepped out on to the dry ground of the Garuda Desert.

"Well," said Ed "This is the place. So where is our assistance?"

"I'm not picking anything up on radar," said Damien.

"Great," said Mark "we got set up."

"I don't think so," Fox cut in. "If this really is a Sec-Weap-Lab, then they'd send as much help as possible"

"Well, let's wait then, and keep an eye on the sky." Said Ed.

Nothing happened for a couple minutes, then…

"Something's approaching form the west!" yelled Karl as he put down the field binoculars he was using. "It looks big!"

"Damien…anything on scanners?" asked Ed

"Nothing"

Ed used his binoculars to look in Karl's direction. He saw what appeared to be a light cruiser and 12 Arwings flying in close formation. All of the ships were a dark gray color.

"Think they're friendly?" Karl asked

"Well, they're flying Arwings, aren't they?" said Mark "They must be friendly."

"Yeah…" Ed replied, a slight bit skeptical.

Then the comm channel crackled to life.

"This is Commander Jason Kage of the CDF Special Forces team know as Shadow Wing, we are coming up on your position, can you see us?"

"This is Commander Ed Wallace of Black Wolf, if you guys are that light cruiser and Arwings moving in on us, then yes, we can see you."

"Heh-heh" Jason chuckled "That would be us, sorry if we may have scared you guys by making our approach with stealth technology."

"You didn't scare me!" yelled Falco "With your fancy-ass ships, with their stealth technology…that I wish I had…"

"Shut it," Fox interrupted. "This is Commander Fox McCloud of Starfox, we also see you and are waiting your arrival."

"We'll be landing shortly; don't worry, they still haven't seen us."

"Affirmative" said Fox.

Chapter 16

Same Place, Only 3 minutes later 

The light cruiser and the 12 Arwings touched down next to the Black Wolf and Starfox Arwings. The cockpits of the Arwings cracked open, and the twelve Shadow Wing pilots walked out to greet Starfox and Black Wolf.

A Bald Eagle only slightly taller than Ed walked up to him.

"Commander Jason Kage, I presume?" asked Ed.

"Yes, and you must be Ed Wallace." The eagle responded.

"Correct."

"I'd like to introduce you to the rest of the squadron, so you know who you're working with." Said Jason

"Sounds like a good idea," Ed responded. He wasn't sure what to expect form the members of a company he had just heard of.

Jason led Ed, and the others, over to the 11 other pilots of Shadow Wing. The pilots stared at one another rather suspiciously as they were introduced, but they were courteous about the introductions. Ed was surprised that he knew a couple of people in the squadron. He had been in the same academy class as them, until they mysteriously "graduated" 2 years ahead. One of them was the cougar standing in front of him, Ivan Marlowski. Ivan seemed reluctant to shake paws with Ed, and regarded him with a cold glint in his eyes

__

Wonder what this is about? Ed thought. His thoughts were interrupted just then, however by two other faces he had seen before, this time of the female persuasion.

Katya Williams had been a competent soldier, and a decent computers expert at the academy, and somehow, the Collie had gotten a position inside the Shadow Wing. Ed knew her only a bit, but had a computer course with her in the academy. Next to her, was Jenna Sandoval, a gray wolf that Ed had dated a while during their first year at the academy. He was dumbstruck by their collective beauty, which he thought had doubled in the past two years since he last saw them, and after shaking hands with them and going through the introductions, Ed still continued to stare at them, until he became aware of somebody snapping his fingers in his face

"This is Ground Control calling Ed, please respond!" Mark said sarcastically.

Ed snapped out of his trance, and moved on to Dante Davidson, the Heir to the Cornerian throne. Ed started to bow, but Dante stopped him.

"Ed, we're on equal ground here," Dante said. "I don't need you to be formal, nor do I really care for it."

"Well, that's your opinion!" Damien Norris interjected. "If I was heir to royalty, I'd take every advantage!"

"Amen to that!" Falco yelled

"Ignore them," said Fox, "they're a little immature, and as such they have no grasp on reality."

Damien and Falco were not amused.

"Well," said Jason interrupting, "We have a briefing to go through, and a counterattack to plan, so let's get to work. We can use the _Phantron_'s briefing room."

"Ok" said Ed

With that the 20 pilots, now turned ground soldiers, walked into the _Phantron_.

Chapter 16

Briefing room, Phantron, 5 minutes after last chapter 

"As you can see, a good amount of the lab is underground" said Jason as he gestured towards the holographic map at the front of the briefing room. "However, some of it is above ground, and that is where the sensor array is. We have reason to believe that the Imperials might be using the array to communicate with their commanders. Teams 4 and 5, with Marlowski in overall command, will secure the top part of the installation. Meanwhile, Team 1, consisting of Vong, Sandoval, Williams, Davidson, and myself along with teams 2 and 3, Starfox and Black Wolf respectively, will secure the lower level. Any secret project data that is recovered will be immediately handed over to me, or any other members of team 1. This is because even though Fox, Ed, and I hold equal rank, Shadow Wing has been placed in command of this operation, and we have specific orders to take all recovered data into our hands."
"That's crap…," Ed replied "but if you insist"

"So be it," Fox replied

"Glad you are so agreeable" Jason said. "In any event, we are going up the plateau, and entering through the front door, here." He pointed to the map. "Then we will split up at the main access elevators. Any questions?" no one responded "Good, let's move out!"

Side of Spec-Weap-Lab 3 plateau, 10 minutes later. 

For the past 10 minutes the 20 soldiers had been climbing up the side of the plateau
"Were almost there," said Jason
    Just then a hole opened up in space-time and a flower pot dropped into the side of the cliff.

"Why are we walking like this?" Ed asked as he released the rope. To everyone's surprise they had been walking horizontally on the top of the plateau for a full minute. 

They immediately set the incident aside, and ran to a rock outcropping 200 meters away. They could see 1 Imperial Soldier guarding the front door.

"Looks easy," Falco commented

"Unless we somehow screw things up and he raises the alarm," Slippy said nervously.

"Leave this to me," Mark said as he drew his magnum revolver. The gun had a scope attached to the top, so he could snipe with it if need be. He used the outcropping to stabilize his arm as he took aim. 

"The soldier is wearing Mark 7 Battle Armor." Reported Ivan. "I highly doubt even a .357 slug could…"

BLAM!

Ed watched through the binoculars as Mark fired. The .357 bullet slammed into the armored guard's neck, blowing apart his carotid artery, and putting a good amount of blood on the outside wall of the lab. The soldier crumpled to the ground, dead, as blood sprayed from the wound.

"Holy shit," Jason muttered. "That was some shot."

"Hurry up let's move before they try to find what happened." Ed said as he took off towards the front door "Hurry up already guys!" He eventually did slow down so that everybody could catch up, and so that Shadow Wing would have more time to breach the front door.

"The bullet hit at the part of the neck joint not protected by the armor" Jack Vong reported as he examined the corpse.

While Ivan was busy hacking into the door control mainframe, Fox approached Ed.

"Well, what do you think of this 'Shadow Wing'?" he asked

"Well," Ed replied, "they seem legit, but I don't like taking orders form a bunch of people I just heard of, even though I know a couple of them."

"I agree," Fox said "Something's up,"

"As do I," said Mark as he walked up to them "Ed, haven't you noticed something odd about Jack Vong?"

"Not really, why?"

"Well, apart from a couple of scars on his face, he looks exactly like Dave Cheng!"

Suddenly, Ed looked shocked. He hadn't noticed it at first, but now that Mark had mentioned it, Jack did look almost exactly like Dave.

"No…" Ed replied "It's not possible, Dave died, I saw his fighter crash, there was no way…"

"But you said they never found his body or his fighter" Fox pointed out

"Yes, but still…" Ed responded.

"SON OF A BITCH!!!"

Marlowski's shout broke up the conversation, and the three turned their heads to look at Ivan.

"I got the primary access code to open the primary door locks, but there are still to more locks to crack!" he said, pounding his laptop

"Allow me to assist" Ed replied, as he brought out and booted up his own laptop he had brought from his Arwing.

"Oh, no you don't!" Ivan shouted in challenge as he began to hammer away on his keyboard

Everybody circled around the two hackers as they challenged one another to break the codes first. Ed, needing an idea, spiked Ivan's laptop to get the first code. Ivan shut him out afterwards. For two minutes the typing went on and on until A massive "thunk" sounded deep behind the doors to the lab.

"HELL YEAH!" Ivan shouted in triumph "I broke the codes!"

"Oh really?" Ed said as he showed him his laptop screen

There, in the gate mainframe passcode boxes, It read "Kerrigan Equals God." Ed had broken the codes, not Ivan

"But…how?" Ivan asked disbelieved.

"Know thine enemy." Ed simply stated "He kept calling himself "godlike" when he was in the academy, so I just called up what I knew."

"Well, it appears you do have some skills," Ivan simply stated, then he walked off to the door

"God, what a bastard." Ed said.

"Don't take it personally," Jason replied "He thinks that because he belongs to Shadow Wing, that he should be better than everybody at everything."

"It seems not everybody in the Wing shares this opinion" Ed replied back.

"Well, whatever. Let's just get moving" Jason walked to the door, which was starting to open.

The 20 soldiers unslung their rifles and the doors slowly slid open to reveal…that the elevator room was empty.

"What the hell?" Jack Vong said "Are these guys stupid?!"

"Look, Jack" Jenna shot back "Don't get mad cause we haven't been shot at yet."

"Yeah but…"

"That's enough!" Jason cut in "We're late as it is, Ivan, take your teams upstairs"

"Yes, sir" Ivan and the rest of teams 4 and 5 got in the "up" elevator and headed up to the top levels of the lab.

"Now, let's go" Jason said as he started to step on the "down" elevator

"WAIT!" Ed yelled, pulling Jason out.

"What are you doing!?" Jason blustered

Ed pushed the down button on the elevator, without stepping into it. Without even the doors closing, the elevator fell like a brick. 5 seconds later, a muffled explosion could be heard.

"They sabotaged the elevator" Katya pointed out, "but how did you know Ed?"

"It seemed too easy," Ed answered "Naturally, there is nothing of vast importance on the upper levels of the lab, so they left that alone, but if most of them are on the bottom level, then they wouldn't want any interference."

"Well, now we have to take the stairs." Jason stated

"Wait, how many flights of stairs?" Mark asked

"Oh, 10 or 15, maybe 20" Jason answered.

"Dear god…I didn't sign on to walk up and down a bunch of goddamn stairs just to kill some Imperials." Mark said.

Chapter 17

Same place, 2 minutes later 

Ed had accepted the fact that they had to take the stairs to get to the lower levels of the lab, he just didn't realize how many stairs there were in a flight. There were about 20 stairs a flight, meaning, at most, 400 stairs. Mark was determined to make this trip as annoying as possible.

"Are we there yet?" Mark asked after the 7th flight

"No" Ed responded

2 flights later…

"How about now?"

"No!"

5 flights after that…

"Yo…"

"Look, don't even ask!" Ed shouted "We are nowhere near there yet!"

Finally, after 20 flights, and about 10 minutes, they reached the bottom of all the stairs

"Whew…" Mark panted, "I'll be glad never to see stairs again."

They walked up to the door and opened it, only to find…another empty room.

"Where the hell are they?" Falco asked, annoyed.

"Let's see what's behind this door!" Jason yelled as he ran up to the door at the end of the hall.

"Wait, DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!" Ed shouted

Jason stopped "What now?" he said tersely

"That room is occupied by at least 2 soldiers, and a string of proximity mines" Ed responded

"How do you know this?" asked Dante

Ed tapped his shades "These shades have a motion sensor, and the ability to uplink with the K21's threat detector."

"I'm assuming that's not standard issue," Jason said

"Nope, I designed these." Ed replied. "but more on that later. Let me handle this room. Mark, back me up."

"Got it." Said Mark as he took a position near the door.

Ed hit the switch to open the door, and he aimed his K21 at the nearest mine. As soon as it came into view, he fired. The bullets hit the mine, which detonated the rest. Then the Imperial soldiers came looking for the cause to the noise. Mark fired a burst form his own K21 at the leftmost soldier, hitting him in the chest. The Imperial dropped almost instantly. Ed then realized there were still three more soldiers. As the first soldier brought his gun up, Ed shot him in the face with the K21. Then he dove to the ground, dropping the K21, and drawing his twin omni-falcons. He fired simultaneously as the Imperial gunfire landed all around him. He put three bullets into each guard's chest, the .45 slugs punching through their armor. Both guards collapsed, dead. The entire fight had taken maybe 5 seconds.

"Well, there were four soldiers, but I was right about the mines. This room's clear." Ed said.

"You think anybody else heard that?" Jenna asked

"I hope not" Ed replied as he picked up his K21"Otherwise, we'll have the entire Imperial regiment down on us."

Jason brought his team up to the next door, and opened it. The room looked a small storage space, with metal crates strewn all over the floor.

"Anything on the motion tracker, Ed?" Katya asked

"Intermittent contacts, but nothing concrete." He replied

"Alright, proceed with caution" Jason said. "Fox, take your team right. Ed, go left."

The three squads moved slowly through the room. The lighting had been dimmed somewhat. _Might conceal an ambush_, Ed thought. Two seconds later, his theory was confirmed. An imperial soldier rose form behind a box at pointblank range, directly in front of Ed. Ed swung his rifle up, knocking the soldier's gun aside, then Ed drew one Omni Falcon and fired into the trooper's forehead. The soldier dropped like a stone. Then Ed's motion sensor flared up.

"CONTACTS!" He yelled "Reading at least 20 contacts on motion tracker!" He gave the signal for his squad to duck down, and they did as Venomian assault rifles fired over their heads. He could see that Starfox and Shadow Wing had done likewise. Ed primed a frag grenade.

"When I give the signal, I want you three to fire to our right, where I'm pointing." He said indicating with the hand not holding the grenade. "3, 2, 1, NOW!!" He yelled as he tossed the grenade in the direction he pointed. 

The 4 Black Wolf pilots rose as one and took aim. Ed fired at the soldiers directly ahead, causing them to duck for cover. One, a lizard, failed to duck in time, and received a K21 bullet to his neck. The other three fired at the 10 soldiers on the right. Two fell, the rest ducked. Then the grenade went off. Ed's throw had been near perfect. 4 soldiers had been killed instantly, their bodies thrown into the air by the blast as their blood splashed against the walls. A 5th soldier had been badly wounded and thrown out into the open, his legs torn up by the shrapnel. He pointed his rifle in Black Wolf's general direction, only to be finished off by a blast from Riker's shotgun.

"Okay, Karl, Damien, take out the guys ahead of us. Mark, follow me."

Ed moved to the right, on the 4 remaining soldiers that had not been killed by the grenade. Mark followed close behind. The Imperial soldiers popped up again, looking for targets. Unfortunately, they became targets. Mark and Ed lay down a barrage of gunfire that cut down three of the soldiers, the last trooper, a Jackal, had ducked down again behind the boxes. Ed leapt over the boxes and swung his K21 at the jackal, catching him in the side of the chest. The Jackal staggered, and Ed put him down with a series of Kung-Fu kicks to the head.

The Imperial soldiers to Ed's left saw what happened, and they turned to fire at Ed. This however, presented their backs to Karl and Damien, who came around the corner guns blazing. One imperial caught a shotgun blast in the spine, which exploded his chest outward. His comrade turned to retaliate, but Norris shot him through the chest and neck with his K21. The last imperial, a female cougar, took 2 blasts from Riker's shotgun in the chest. She died without even crying out in pain.

At this point, Starfox and Shadow Wing seized the initiative and attacked the last group of 10 soldiers. The Imperials suddenly found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. They tried to fight back, but their VK assault rifles were no match for the superior K21s the Cornerains carried. The last soldier dove relentlessly at Falco, but Falco was too fast for him. He hit the Imperial in the side of the head with his K21, and then shot him twice in the back. The soldier was dead before he hit the ground.

Ed grabbed the one remaining Imperial left alive, the Jackal he tangled with, and shook him awake.

"All right dirtbag, time to answer some questions," Ed growled "What are you doing here?"

"Up yours, Cornerian scum!" was the reply.

At that point, almost everybody pointed their rifles at the jackal.

"Wait," Ed said. Then to the Jackal: "What are you doing here? Now keep in mind, failure to answer will result in massive blood loss." To make his point, Ed leveled one of his omni-falcons at the jackal's torso, while still keeping a hand on his throat.

"All right, damn you!" the Jackal said. "We were sent here to steal some technology that the Imperial Command was intent on using for further invasion purposes!"

"Oh really?" said Jason. "What kind of technology?"

"General Caine and General Steinburg weren't specific, but Lord Kerrigan said something about a new mobile weapons system, or something." The Jackal continued.

"Where are you getting the technology from?" Ed queried

"Well, we weren't sent to get the technology," said the Jackal. "We were told to hack into the computer systems and steal the plans. I think we jacked into the mainframes 1 level below here."

"One more thing, any hostages?"

"A few scientists, we were told not to harm them."

Ed put the pistol away "Thank you for cooperating…Mark, get me a box"

"Wait, what…" said the Jackal, but Ed suddenly chopped at the Jackal's brachial nerve tie-in (at the neck) with his right paw. The Jackal fell unconscious. Ed then stuffed him into one of the bullet-riddled metal crates that Mark had tossed his way.

"He'll be out for a while," Ed stated, "now let's move out."

Jason walked up to the next door, and activated it. Ed drew his omni-falcons. "There are at least 4 soldiers in the room." Ed said.

Jason nodded, and tightened his grip on the K21 he was holding. The door slid open slowly.

There were indeed 4 soldiers standing guard in the room beyond the door, Ed brought his guns up, and fired at the nearest soldier. The Imperial soldier took 2 .45 slugs to the chest and went down. The other 3 brought their guns up. At this point, Jason and Dante pointed their rifles through the door and fired, catching one of the soldiers on the right in the stomach. Ed dove to the left, both omni falcons firing, the third solder fell, and the gun in Ed's left hand clicked.

__

Damn, out of ammo, he thought, then he realized his right-hand gun had one bullet left. He quickly pointed it at the last soldier and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the soldier in the chest, and he staggered, then before he regain his footing, automatic fire from at least 12 assault rifles fired at him. The Imperial soldier seemed to wilt, fold, and fly apart as the slugs from the K21s hit him.

Ed turned around. He saw that everybody else had fired on the soldier. This had probably saved his life. "Thanks guys" he said

A chorus of "no problem" came from the 12 soldiers.

Ed then went to reload his Omni Falcons. He loaded the right one with one of his .45 clips, but didn't reload the left one with the same. He inspected one of the Imperial corpses, and took a 9mm clip, which he loaded into the left gun. As he was reloading his near empty K21, Jason walked up to him.

"Did you just load a gun that shoots .45 bullets with a 9mm clip?" he asked

"Yeah"

"Isn't that not going to work?"

"You'll see," Ed replied cryptically as he flicked a knob on the left-hand Omni Falcon, and left it drawn. He slung the K21 over his shoulder. 

Then he went over to the door in front of him and activated it.

It opened to show an enraged Venomian Officer brandishing an energy rifle of some type. Almost too fast to see, Ed brought his Omni Falcon up and fired. The gun shot a 3-round burst of 9mm bullets. The first shot hit the officer in the chest, below the sternum, the next bullet impacted at the top of the sternum. The last bullet, however, slammed into the tiger's face. The officer's face exploded into a red mist as his finger tightened on the trigger. The shot went wild, and the energy bolt slammed into the ceiling, sending down a shower of molten metal as the tiger collapsed, dead.

For a while, no one said anything, then Jason spoke up. "Ed, explain."

"Gladly" he said, "Presenting the omni-falcon, a brand new version of the Falcon pistol currently used by members of the CDF. It is capable of using any kind of ballistic firearm ammo due to the use of microchip controlled polymers that mold the barrel assembly to fire any kind of bullet. What happens is when a clip is inserted, a laser scanner gets the size and caliber of the bullet, and then feeds this information to the microchip. The microchip then signals the polymers to mold to fit the caliber of the bullet so it can fire the bullet. After the polymers are done molding, they harden enough so that the barrel cannot be broken easily."

"How do you know so much about the gun?" Fox asked

"Simple," Ed replied, "Mark and I designed these guns. We figured out in our 3rd year at the Academy that if someone could make a universal ammo-using sidearm, it could be very useful to spec-ops forces and troops caught behind enemy lines. With that in mind, we spent all of our 3rd year and most of our 4th year researching nanotechnology and polymer technology to come up with a new kind of nano-polymer that could be directed by a microchip. This forms the core element of our omni-falcons. We presented this prototype," Ed indicated with his right hand gun, "to Arspace Dynamics and the CDF Chiefs of Staff. They said that they would give us funding to create 3 more prototypes for field testing, and then they would use our test data to make a decision. Arspace did decide, however, to write up a tentative contract in which they would produce the guns, and Mark and I would each make 20% of the profits. This gun, mind you," Ed concluded, "is not made to replace all guns, as it would not be accurate as an assault rifle, but it fills the sidearm and SMG role very well."

"So we have seen," Jason said. "Anyway, we still have a ways to go before we reach the main terminal. Let's get going."

Dante picked up the fallen Venomian's assault rifle. "Hmm…" he said "VK-27P Plasma rifle…wonder what it can do? And what does it mean by 'overcharge'?"

"Only one way to find out." Jack replied.

"Good point." Dante activated the overcharge and held down the trigger. The barrel of the rifle glowed with a pulsing yellow/green light, and a low buzzing noise emitted from it.

Jason activated the door, and it slid open. The room was a relatively empty hallway with minimal cover provided by the outcroppings on the walls, and a few storage containers. Then the door on the other end of the hallway opened and six guards came out, one of them holding twin gattling guns. They spotted the 13 Cornerian soldiers, and brought their weapons to bear.

Dante fired his stolen plasma rifle first, however. A greenish-yellow sphere shot out of the barrel and hit the rightmost guard. There was a hissing nose as he collapsed, with a smoking hole in his chest. Then the guards opened fire, barrages of bullets were sent in the direction of the Cornerians.

"TAKE COVER!" Jason yelled as he ran for an outcropping. Everybody else scrambled for cover amid a hail of bullets. Ed dove behind a container, and to his right Katya dove behind another container. Ed leapt up and fired, his Omni Falcon spraying 9mm bursts in his left hand, and his K21 in his right. All of the Imperials scrambled for cover as well, except the tiger with the gattling guns. He pointed them straight at Ed. Ed saw this and ducked just as another hail of bullets passed through the spot he had just been.

To Ed's left. Mark pulled out his twin omni falcons and fired at the leftmost guard who was coming out of hiding. The guard flew through the air as the .357 rounds tore through his chest. Then Mark ducked back into his outcropping as another guard fired a laser rifle at him. Katya popped up from behind her cover and started firing at the Imperial troops. Bullets and lasers flew all around her as she mowed down a third soldier, and then her gun jammed. As she stopped to try to unjam it, the soldier holding the gattling guns pointed his weapons straight at her.

With almost no time to think, Ed leapt at Katya, while bringing his pistol up in his left hand "Get down, Katya!" he yelled, as he dove at her. As the gattling guns opened up, Ed tackled Katya. Ed fired his gun, spraying a three round burst into the guard on the left, as he fell, the Gattling gunner tracked Ed's movement. Ed felt something ram into his left shoulder just before his right side hit the floor behind some metal crates. Gattling rounds whined off the metal bins as Ed waited for the gunfire to let up. It didn't sound like it was going to anytime soon.

"Are you all right?" he asked Katya

"I'm fine, could've warned me sooner though." She answered.

Jason and Fox stepped out from their cover and opened fire. The guard on the right took 5 shots to the chest and dropped, the Fox shot the gattling gunner in the throat. Both guns clattered to the floor as the gunner slumped to the floor.

"Room's clear, you two can get up now." Jenna said to Ed and Katya.

As Ed stood up, he couldn't help but notice a sharp pain in his left shoulder. "Mark, what are you staring at?"

"Uh…Ed…you're bleeding out of your shoulder" Mark stated.

Ed looked, and suddenly, the pain intensified. "Well, shit," he said as he suddenly slumped back down to the floor.

"You alright?" Katya asked, concerned.

"Yeah," he answered dazedly, "just never been shot before."

Katya looked at the wound, "The bullet went right through, this will only take a moment." Katya produced a medkit, and grabbed a hypospray. "Here, this biofoam will seal up the wound and staunch the bleeding. It also has painkillers in it."

As she sprayed it, Ed felt a burning sensation in his shoulder, but it subsided after a few seconds. "Thanks," he said as she started to wrap his shoulder in a cloth bandage.

"You sure you're all right?" Jason asked, "I mean, you did just get shot"

"I'm over the initial shock." Ed answered "Besides, it's a small price to pay for saving a fellow soldier, especially such an attractive one."

Ed was sure he heard someone make a gagging noise, but chose to ignore it.

"Well, anyway," Fox said, as if he were changing the subject "We still have a ways to go, plus I want to try out this Imperial laser rifle I just picked up"

"Well," Mark said, "I'd like to try out these gattling guns!" He said as he strapped on the ammo belts and picked the guns up. "Come on! I'll lead the way!" He walked over to the door, then stopped.

"Uh…could someone get the door?" he suddenly asked.

"Oh, yeah," Ed said sarcastically, as he went to the door controls. "We got really far while you were leading!"

The doors slid open, slowly, revealing 5 guards, all armed to the hilt with assault weapons. They hadn't counted on Mark standing in the doorway with the gattling guns pointed right at them. He opened fire. 4 of the soldiers flew through the air as the bullets tore through their bodies. The last soldier crouched behind a metal crate and was shouting for backup on his radio before Fox silenced him with a blast from his captured laser rifle.

"Let's move before their backup arrives." Fox said as he ran towards the door. The door suddenly opened up, and 10 imperial soldiers charged through.

"Take cover!" Dante yelled as he opened fire. Everybody scrambled for cover as gunfire was exchanged between forces. Ed was caught in the middle of it all, as he had to find cover behind some crates in the middle of the room. He reloaded his left-hand omni-falcon with 45-caliber ammo, and he drew his right hand omni-falcon as well. He popped up from behind cover and started shooting. Two imperials dropped, but Ed could see at least another ten soldiers streaming through the door.

"There has to be at least a whole company after us!!" Katya shouted over the gunfire.

"We need to give Ed support!" Damien shouted as he started moving amongst the crates to reach Ed's position. Fox, Katya, Dante, Mark and Karl also stated advancing.

Ed continued firing until his pistol ammo was emptied. As he went for his K21, he saw three imperials coming at him. He took out two, but the third soldier dodged left, and brought his rifle down on Ed's injured shoulder. Ed cried out in pain as he fell to the ground, staring up at the imperial soldier. The soldier was about to put a bullet through his head, when a hissing noise pierced the air, followed by a meaty _thwack!_ The soldier fell, a silver shuriken embedded in his throat. Ed then saw Jack Vong vault over him, drawing his katana. Ed struggled to his feet, and saw Jack slash one soldier across the chest, while kicking another one in the neck. Both soldiers crumpled. There were now only 5 soldiers left standing. Jack went to work. Almost two fast to see, he downed one guard with a dropkick, and slashed another one's throat. The lizard then punched another in the face, and the imperial sailed through the air before slamming into the ground. One of the remaining imperials finally got his act together and opened fire with his rifle. Jack deflected the shots with his katana, sending one of the shots into the assailant's head. The last soldier attempted to shoot, but Jack ran him through the chest with his sword. The soldier was dead before he hit the ground.

"Are you all right?" Jack asked Ed

"Yeah…I'm fine…" Ed said slowly.

"Well, we'd better get going, before more of them show up." Jack said as he went to the door. Everybody followed him, but Ed lagged behind a bit. He was still stunned by what he saw. He had witnessed an amazing fighting style that he had only seen once before. The only other person he knew that could fight the way Jack did, with such speed and accuracy, was Dave Cheng.

__

What the hell is going on here? Ed asked himself as he followed the soldiers through the door.

END OF PART THREE.

Well, I know this part was a long time coming, and I decided to end it before I planned to, which will probably mean I have two more parts to write before I finish this fanfic up. 


	4. A Grim Assesment

Shattered Lylat Prelude: Enter Black Wolf

Part 4: A Grim Assessment

Chapter 18

__

Same place as the last part, same year (2550)

"The mainframe is just beyond the next room." Said Jason Kage.

"About friggin' time" Mark Rendar answered.

"Well, let's get moving" Ed Wallace said as he moved towards the door that led to the next room. When he was 5 feet away from the door, however, and explosion tore the door off, and sent Ed reeling backwards. As the dust cleared, everybody could see an Imperial soldier readying his rocket launcher for another shot.

"Somebody shoot him!" Jason yelled. Nobody had their guns up, however, and the Imperial was ready to fire. Suddenly, he stiffened and collapsed forward, two bullets in his back.

"Where did that come from?" Fox asked.

"It came from me!" said a voice down the smoky corridor. "I'm coming out now! I mean you no harm. Don't shoot me!"

As the smoke cleared, everybody saw a white tiger walk out into the open, holding his 9mm pistol at his side. Behind him, a gray fox walked out into the open as well, nervously holding a K21.The tiger was wearing a business suit, and the fox was wearing a lab coat.

"Hey, who are you guys?" Fox asked the tiger.

"I, am Mike Wilson," the tiger answered, "this is Allen Jones," he said gesturing to the nervous gray fox

"Wait, the Mike Wilson?" Ed asked "The same Mike Wilson who formed Damocles Industries, and now serves as president, General of the Damocles Security Force, and one of the heads of R&D?"

Everybody in the CDF knew about Damocles Industries. It had been formed 5 years ago as a competing company to Arspace Dynamics. Its HQ was stationed on Macbeth. The company was well known for making new technological advances in warfare. When Andross attacked Macbeth, the DSF (Damocles Security Force) resisted his forces, until the evil Oberon Corporation joined the Venomian side of the war. In desperation, Damocles agents gave the coordinates of a Venomian train yard and weapons factory to the CDF, and Starfox blew it up. This action saved the company form certain destruction.

"The same." Mike responded. "But, actually, Allen here is the chief engineer and head of R&D. I just play more of a side role."

"Well, what exactly would the president of Damocles and the chief engineer be doing here?" Falco asked

"Well…" Allen answered "It's kind of top secret. We were running tests on a new weapons system for the CDF, but then the Imperials attacked and captured most of us. Mike evaded capture, and rescued me from interrogation. We were trying to get out when we ran into you guys."

"Could you tell us what the intentions of the Imperials are?" Jason asked.

"They're trying to steal the plans for the new weapons system!" Allen yelped. "I managed to lock down the files, but they've almost got it figured out. You better hurry. The mainframe they're using is in a room adjacent to the room behind us."

"Ok, but first we should get you two out of here" Mark said.

"Good idea," said Slippy "I'll escort them out, as I'm not much of a fighter"

"I'll go too," said Peppy "I'm getting a little old for this sort of thing."

"All right," said Jason. "I'll just check in with Marlowski to let him know you're coming up." Jason activated his radio "Marlowski, what's your situation?"

Ivan Marlowski's voice came back over the open channel "Marlowski here; we have succeeded all objectives with no losses. How are things on your end? Did anybody in particular die? Say, Ed for example?"

"No" Jason replied sternly "Ed is alive, as is everyone else. Ed just got wounded earlier is all."

Another voice broke in "HA! I win the bet Ivan! Give me $20!"

"Shut the hell up Odell!" Ivan shot back. "Look, what else do you want Commander?"

"We're sending up two Damocles Industries personnel back up, and they're being escorted by Slippy and Peppy. We just want you to direct them to where you are."

"Okay, we can do that. Marlowski out." Came the terse reply.

The comm went dead.

"What the hell is his problem?" Ed asked Jason as Slippy and Peppy escorted Mike and Allen out.

"I think it's because you cracked the code on the doors before he did, and the fact that you were selected to accompany us on this mission. He's kind of an elitist." Jason replied.

"Jeez," Damien Norris cut in "Are you all like that?"

"No," Dante Davidson replied. "Just Ivan and his buddy Doug Cronin, who's also a Corporal in Shadow Wing."

"Right…anyways, we'd better get to that mainframe before they steal the plans." Ed said as he opened up the door. Next to him, Fox charged up the laser rifle to its most powerful setting.

The door slid open, revealing 5 Imperial soldiers standing guard, weapons ready. Fox instantly fired at the nearest guard. The laser blew through the soldier's chest and out the other end, clipping another guard in the side. Both crumpled to the floor. Ed moved through the door, firing his twin omni-falcons with .45 ammo. He dropped two more soldiers. The last tried to run for the alarm box. But Mark put him down with a burst from his own omni-falcons.

"There's the main mainframe room!" Dante said as he ran to the door and tried to open it. "Damn, it's locked!"

"Is there anyway to hack into it?" asked Jack Vong.

"Negative," said Jenna Sandoval "They destroyed the network uplink conduits."

"Well, shit!" said Karl Riker, "There has to be a way in"

"There is" Katya Williams said as she pointed up at the ceiling.

Everybody looked up, to see an air vent, that was maybe only 2 or 3 feet long and 2 or 3 feet wide.

"Well, how the hell are we supposed to fit through there?" Mark asked

"It's obvious isn't it?" Ed said "We can send two of our shorter personnel through there. That should be sufficient to get the information. There should only be 1 or two Imperials in there. I personally think I should be able to fit in there. So I'll go. Anybody wanna come with me?"

"I'll go." Said Katya "I'm only 5' 8"

"All right then," said Jason, "you need to get in there, neutralize any hostiles, and recover the data. Also, no looking at the data, got that Ed?"

"You're absolutely no fun at all, Kage, you know that?" Ed replied. "Mark, give me a boost."

Mark boosted Ed up to the air vent, and Ed ripped the grate away. He then got a handhold on part of the vent and pulled himself up. "Okay, now boost Katya up." He told Mark.

Seconds later, Katya struggled up to where Ed was inside the vent. "Okay, now we just go straight ahead, and there should be another vent."

After they crawled for about 15 or 20 feet, they came to the vent they were looking for. Ed carefully removed the grate, and looked around.

"There's one soldier, and he's busy on the mainframe. I'll drop down and knock him out." He told Katya.

"Be careful," she told him.

Carefully, so as not to make too much noise, Ed got out of the vent so that he was holding on the edge of the vent. He then released his grip, and dropped down towards the soldier. Ed hit the chimpanzee in the back of the neck with a double fisted karate chop, and the Imperial slumped to the ground, unconscious. Ed searched the inert trooper, and found a couple of timed mines. He pocketed them for later use.

"Okay…" Ed said, "looks like he was in the middle of downloading the plans when I showed up, the copying is 90% done. These plans seem to be for a new weapons system called the Mechanized Assault Chassis, or MAC for short. I wonder what that is?"

"It's not your job to speculate, Ed" Katya called from the vent. "Just give me the disc."

"Okay…" Ed said as he reluctantly went to eject the disc. He then noticed that it was actually burning two copies, presumably for multiple commanders. Ed was at an impasse. Should he tell Katya about the second disc, or should he take it and find out what the MAC is all about? Ed decided that what Shadow Wing didn't know couldn't hurt him. As the plan file transfer completed, he ejected the first disc and tossed it up to Katya.

"Okay, I'm going now, try to get back up here or open the door." She said. When Ed was sure she had left, he took the second disc and sealed it inside his laptop case. Just then, the Imperial's radio crackled to life.

"Lopez…" came the voice "Whatever you're doing, take what you got and leave. We're retreating. A Cornerian force is systematically destroying us, and we need to leave. Lord Kerrigan won't be happy, but maybe the partial plans will be okay. We're meeting at Hangar Bay 2, where the shuttle is docked. The code to open the mainframe room's door is 1986. Got that? Sure hope you do, because we're leaving in a big hurry."

The radio went silent.

Ed walked up to the door's keypad and entered the code. The door slowly slid open, and he stepped out to where everybody was waiting for him. "We need to get to Hangar Bay 2," he told Jason "the Imperials are retreating there, and that's where their shuttle is."

"You sure?" Jason asked

"Positive," Ed replied "I heard the commander of the soldier in the mainframe room telling him about the retreat plans. We have to hurry if we want to catch them"

"Okay, we'll do that now," Jason said "The hangars are 1 km away from here, at the back of the lab, we have to take an elevator up at the end of the next chain of 5 rooms."

"Let's move!" Dante shouted as he took off in a run

Chapter 19

_ Elevator room to the Hangars, 5 minutes later _

The past 5 minutes had been a mixture of fighting and running as the 11 Cornerian soldiers ran to the elevators, cutting down any unlucky Imperial forces that got in their way. Now, in the room containing the elevators that went up to the hangars. 10 Imperial soldiers were making a last ditch stand to stop the Cornerians. Three of them were killed by a grenade that Mark threw. Fox used his laser rifle to burn down two more. Falco shot one through the head, and Jenna dispatched two with her K21. The last two soldiers ran for the elevator, but Ed blasted them with his Omni-Falcons.

"Marlowski, we're heading up the elevator to the hangar bay. What's your status?" Jason radioed in as the 11 soldiers got on the elevator

"We can't get down to the hangar. We've met heavy resistance from a rear guard of Imperial troops. Both Cronin and Dupris have been wounded, and Odell is reporting that he's low on ammo." Ivan reported worriedly.

"Do what you can…and try to find the hostages. Kage out"

The elevator moved up a medium pace towards the hangars. When it finally ground to a halt, Ed, Mark, Fox, Falco, and Jason covered took positions in front of the doors. The doors slid open, and the Imperial troops were surprised to see the Cornerian soldiers, rather than their comrades. The troops tried to raise their guns, but the Cornerian response was powerful. The 5 K21s tore through the ranks of Imperials. As the enemy returned fire, the Cornerians broke for cover.

Ed dove behind some boxes as machine gun bullets tore up the floor behind him. He looked around, and saw that the Imperials were retreating to a _Domo_-class attack shuttle that was parked in the hangar bay. "There's the shuttle!" Ed yelled "We have to keep it from escaping!"

Ed broke out in a run towards the shuttle, firing at anyone that got in his way. To his right, Mark ran with him, twin gattling guns tearing apart Imperial soldiers. The rest of the Cornerians were also running towards the shuttle. When Ed was 100 feet from the shuttle, he saw that it was beginning to take off. Ed new there was very little time to react. Mark tried shooting the ship with his gattling guns, but the armor was too thick.

"Mark," Ed called out "Hold your fire! I'll handle this." Ed used his rifle's zoom to locate what he was looking for…a ladder leading up to a ventilation shaft for the shuttles fusion core. Ed scrambled up the ladder, ignoring the sounds of the engines igniting, ripped off the vent grating, and threw a timed mine in to the vent. He had set the fuse for 10 seconds. He leapt to the ground and started running back the way he came. The ship was starting to take off and escape

"What was that…a tracking device?" Jason asked as he started running alongside Ed

"No, a timed explosive" Ed said as he dove behind some boxes. Just as he did, the mine went off.

The shuttle had just cleared the hangar bay when the mine exploded. The explosion reverberated through the ventilation shaft, and damaged the reactor. The feedback from the blast also blew out both engines of the shuttle. The _Domo _wavered in the air for a few seconds, then dropped down to the ground. It slid in, carving a massive trench in the top of the plateau.

"That got 'im!" Ed said enthusiastically.

"We'd better get down there" Mark said "If we can capture their computers intact, we may know their troop deployments, and any special weapons projects."

The 11 soldiers rappelled down the side of the lab to where the shuttle had crashed. As they ran to the crash site, the remaining Imperials ran out of the ingress hatches and opened fire. Fortunately, the damage sustained to the reactor prevented the shuttles gun turrets from being used, so the Cornerians were able to take cover without incident.

"Attention Imperial scum!" Jason Kage yelled as he emerged from cover," You have no chance of escape! Surrender now and you will be treated civilly!"

The Imperial response was to send a stream of bullets at Jason, who only managed to duck in time.

"You try that shit again, Kage," Falco yelled "and I'll shoot you myself!"

Ed saw that the Imperial commander, a tall alligator, was waving his laser pistol and shouting for his troops to incinerate all available cover. The he stated firing on Fox's position.

Ed popped out from cover and stated shooting at the commander. The alligator dodged the shots, and shot back at Ed. This however, gave Fox the chance he needed. Fox raised his laser rifle and fired it at maximum charge. The red beam impaled the Imperial commander through the chest, and he slumped over, dead. The Imperial morale plummeted like a rock, and they started firing haphazardly as they ran back to the shuttle. Ed opened fire with his omni-falcons, and cut down the second in command as he was about to go through the main ingress hatch.

"SURRENDER!!" Jason yelled again as he kept firing his K21.

The shuttles external speakers crackled. "This is Captain Chavez of the 6th Imperial Elite Infiltration Unit. You're actions have reduced our battalion to less than a company. We know now that escape is impossible, and we surrender. We are coming out now.

The Cornerians emerged from cover and started walking towards the crashed shuttle. "I'll go in alone" Jason said

"Oh no you don't" Ed shot back. "You aren't keeping vital information from me this time!"

"Me neither!" Fox yelled as he ran up to them

"Fine…" Jason sighed, "but only this time. The rest of you…keep a watch on the prisoners."

Ed, Jason and Fox walked into the shuttle and towards the bridge.

Chapter 20

As the three soldiers walked onto the wrecked bridge of the shuttle, they saw Captain Chavez attempting to erase the mainframe data. Ed walked up and pointed his pistol at the back of the Captain's head.

"I would advise against doing that." Ed said

Slowly, the captain moved away from the computer, with his hands above his head. Fox grabbed the captain, keeping his rifle trained on him.

Ed then went to the mainframe's keyboard, and started typing.

"What're you doing?" Jason asked

"I'm trying to find their force deployments and secret weapons projects. It shouldn't take me long" Ed replied. After about 2 minutes, the Imperial force deployments were on the main screen.

"I'll download this to a CD, you try to find their secret weapons projects." Jason said

Ed continued typing and hacking. After 5 minutes of work…he located the Imperial Secret Weapons projects.

"Okay here we go," Ed said as he clicked on a file labeled "Invader IV" what he saw was a diagram and technical readout for a new Imperial Strike fighter. After looking through that, and a file on a new Tripod III ground attack fighter, he spotted a file called "Project PRISM"

"Wonder what that is?" Fox asked

"Let's find out" Ed answered as he opened the file.

As the data scrolled across the main screen, the three Cornerians could only stare in horror at it. Captain Chavez, meanwhile had a triumphant look on his face.

"Ed, download this data to disc…the CDF has to know about this right away!" Jason said frantically

As Ed began the download…a proximity alarm sounded.

"What the hell?" Ed asked

Jason ran over to the sensors. "Looks like that Imperial light cruiser is coming to destroy the evidence!" he reported "But I can handle it." He opened a connection to the _Phantron_. "Smirnov, an enemy cruiser is coming in on us…deal with it."

"Got it" Captain Robert Smirnov replied "_Phantron _going on station"

"Let's get moving," Fox said as he roughly shoved Chavez out the door.

The four of them exited the shuttle in time to see the _Phantron _fly overhead to engage the _Dorisby II_ that was flying in. missiles and lasers lashed out at the _Dorisby II_, which took numerous hits…and then withdrew into orbit.

"Odd…maybe the _Phantron _was too much for it" Dante speculated.

"I don't know…the _Dorisby II_ cantake a lot of punishment," Mark said.

Then Ivan and his team ran up, along with Allen, Mike, Damocles scientists, and 3 Damocles test pilots. "Hey, we rescued the hostages and were headed your way when the cruisers stated firing. What's going on?" Ivan asked Jason.

"Something that is much bigger than this raid, or even the battle yesterday" was all Jason could say in reply "Let's get out of here, and tell General Pepper to send in a salvage team to the crash site"

Chapter 21

_ Corneria Park, Corneria City, Corneria, June 16th 2550, 1300 hours _"And so we are here to recognize the brave heroics of the soldiers here in the battle to protect our planet from Imperial invasion." There was large applause as Prince Davidson's speech ended. Ed, Mark, Damien, Karl, Starfox, Husky and Bulldog squadrons, and 50 other pilots and soldiers stood at parade rest in military dress uniform on stage at the CDF medal of honor ceremony. As each soldier's name was called, General Pepper and Admiral Collins handed pinned a CDF Medal of Honor on them, and saluted. Slowly, the procession moved down the line, until it reached Black Wolf Squadron. General Pepper pinned the MOH on Ed's dress coat, and saluted. Ed returned the salute. Then Admiral Collins pinned two more medals on Ed, next to the MOH. Ed looked at them, they were the Titanium Medal of Valor, and the Purple Heart. When he was about to ask…Admiral Collins answered. "It's for saving my life and my command, and the Purple Heart is for your shoulder." The Admiral said as he saluted Ed. "Thank you, sir." Ed said as he returned the salute. Soon after, the ceremony ended and the soldiers were dismissed 

__

Black Knight, Corneria's orbit, June 16th 2550, 1315 hours

Ed was recuperating in his quarters on board the Black Knight, when the comm buzzed.

"Yes?" Ed answered

"Sir," said ROB-2 "We have a gray Arwing coming in to the docking bay. The pilot, who identified herself as Katya Williams, wishes to speak with you privately"

"Send her in" Ed said. _Wonder what this is about? _He thought. _Maybe I can ask her about that Jack Vong guy_. Ed had been pondering whether or not Dave Cheng and Jack Vong was the same person or not.

A couple minutes later, Katya walked into his quarters.

"Uh…hi" Ed said nervously

"Hi," Katya answered back. "So this is your ship" she said

"More or less," Ed said. "So what brings you here?"

"Well, firstly…I want to thank you for saving my life." She replied.

"ahh…it was nothing really…saving lives in battle seems to be a habit for me."

"Yes…but you didn't need to put your own life at risk to do so"

"Well, maybe I did."

"Which brings me to the second reason I'm here"

"And that would be...?" Ed asked

Katya suddenly pulled Ed close to her, and locked muzzles with him

__

HOLY SHIT!!!! Ed's brain screamed. He decided not to break away though. After about 5 seconds, Katya drew back from him.

"Uh…I had no idea at all…" Ed said

"Neither did I, until this morning" Katya answered "See, when you selflessly risked your own life for mine, I thought that you really had feelings for me."

"I did," Ed said "See…you're smart and attractive, and I just thought that if I didn't risk my life there, I'd never get to know you better"

"Well," she said "How well do you think you know me now?"

"I'm not sure" Ed answered, "I think I'll need to spend more time with you" and with that he drew the border collie to him. _The questions about Jack can wait,_ he thought, as he and Katya locked muzzles again in a passionate kiss.

Just then the comm beeped.

__

Son of a… Ed thought "Hold on a second." He told Katya. "What is it?"

"We need you and your squadron to report to HQ for a briefing…right away." Said General Pepper

"All right…" Ed sighed. "Sorry, Katya, duty calls"

"I understand…call me when you get back."

"I will"

Chapter 23

__

CDF HQ, Corneria City, Corneria, June 16th 2550, 1335 hours

"Now that you're all here" General Pepper said as Ed took his seat "We can begin." 

Ed looked around the room, and saw that in addition to his squadron, Starfox was also seated at the briefing.

"First," the General continued, "The matter of the warship you discovered in Sector Y"

"What about it?" Ed asked

"Did you ever wonder why it was there, and why it was broadcasting an Arspace designation?"

"Well, kind of,"

"Well, we have an answer. Last year, after Starfox cleared Corneria, Sector Y, and Katina of Imperial presence, the CDF Joint-Chiefs of Staff: myself, Admiral Collins, Lt. General Magnusson, and Vice Admiral Gestahl decided that we needed a super powerful battlecruiser to better defend Corneria. The end result was the _Mjolnir_ battlecruiser, built by Arspace Dynamics. The _Mjolnir _was, is, a powerful ship with weaponry that was never before seen in the CDF. When it was completed, we decided to test its hyperdrive on a short jump to Katina. Something went wrong however, and the drive suffered a malfunction, causing a major course change. The test crew evacuated in time, but the ship jumped into hyperspace, and we lost all trace of it…until now."

"So, I am going to have to give the ship back?" Ed asked

"No, you may use the ship as your mobile base of operations for missions"

"Odd that you'd not want the ship back" Fox said

"Well, we got the blueprints back from the main computers, so we're planning to try to build new _Mjolnirs _soon."

"Ok, then" Ed said

"Right…" the General continued "On to the second part of the briefing, which concerns the data you captured from that Imperial shuttle. Our best scientists and military analysts have looked it over, and the results are shocking."

The General tapped a few buttons on his control console, and the plans for "Project PRISM" appeared on the screen.

"This is the Death Prism," Pepper said "It appears to be a gigantic rectangular shaped battle fortress. The dimensions say it is at least 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, by 1.5 miles high. From what we can determine, these pyramidal shaped structures are laser cannons of vast destructive power." He pointed to the pyramids on each face of the battle fortress. "Any one of the cannons alone possesses enough power to annihilate an entire planet."

How is that possible?!" Ed yelled

"From what we can determine, the pyramids act as amplifiers and magnifiers for the laser cannon housed beneath it. Our analysts have dubbed these cannons the Prism cannons."

"This has to be destroyed!" Fox shouted

"It will be." General Pepper answered. "We are asking your squadrons to fly in and somehow destroy this thing. It is currently undergoing final preparations before launch at Macbeth. If you can destroy it before the Imperials can launch it, we can end this war."

"Hold it," Mark cut in "What about the Imperial forces on Fortuna? If we go straight to Macbeth, they could catch us from behind."

"That's true…" General Pepper answered "Starfox, think you can handle the Imperials at Fortuna while Black Wolf can prepare for battle?"

"Wait a minute…why not send both of us?" Ed asked

"To be honest, I don't even want to send your squadron to Macbeth, but I see no reason to risk our entire attack force on Fortuna.

"That's insane!" Ed shouted "You forget, I have _Black Knight_, it has enough firepower to weaken the guard fleet at Fortuna!"

"That's all well and good, but I am unable to send normal military line units there at this time, since losses at Fortuna were already high."

"Fine!" Ed yelled "If you can't send me as a line unit, I will tend my resignation to the CDF and become a mercenary!"

"You can't do that!"

"Oh yes I can, there's proof right there!" Ed said pointing and Fox and his team

"Even if you do go mercenary, it'll be just you, and there's no way you'll get a mission from us!" the General shot back

"That's where you're wrong." Mark said, "I'll go merc too."

"As will I" said Damien

"Me too" said Karl.

"Well, General, what are you going to do now?" Ed said

END OF PART 4


	5. The Cornerians Strike Back

Shattered Lylat Prelude: Enter Black Wolf

Part 5: The Cornerians Strike Back

Chapter 22 part 2

_Same Place as last chapter, same year, same day_

"Well…" said General Pepper "I have a solution. You 4 can be mercenaries, yet you have a long-standing defense contract with us. I'll even throw in a $500,000 signing bonus. Officially, you'll be CDF Special Forces."

"Something about this seems odd…you planned this didn't you?" Ed asked.

"More or less…" said General Pepper "You see, the CDF bureaucracy is so limited, and we need a second unit that can fight outside the rules, a second set of mercenaries. This incident gave me just that chance."

"I feel so used," Ed said

"Don't feel bad, this was just the quickest way,"

"All right, but how much are we gonna get paid for this?"

"Well, it's $500,000 for signing on, $300,000 for clearing Fortuna, $1,000,000 for destroying the Death Prism, and $500,000 hazard pay for combating the Death Prism. It's the same rate I gave Starfox." The General passed Ed a contact outlining all of the details

"Deal." Ed said, as he signed his name on the contract, after reading it over. Then Mark, Damien and Karl did likewise.

"Al right, you move out for Fortuna in 1 hour. Dismissed"

Chapter 23

__

CDF HQ Hangars, Corneria, June 16th 2550, 1340 hours

"Ed what the hell were you thinking?" Falco asked Ed as the 8 pilots of Starfox and Black Wolf walked towards their Arwings

"Well, for a start, I wanted another crack at Wolf O'Donnell and his team of jackasses." Ed replied "For another thing…I don't like having to declare war before waging war. Especially if we're already being attacked."

"Well, that doesn't exactly give you an excuse to walk out on the CDF after graduating!" Falco shot back

"Well, we all did it," said Fox, "except that I was born into the mercenary business. If you guys want to be mercenaries, that's perfectly all right. Besides, you guys have something going for you."

"What's that?" Mark asked

"You got a starship for free, that's what." Fox answered "I still have about 70 years of payment left on the _Great Fox_."

"Oh, yeah…that's right. Tough luck." Damien said. Everybody knew that massive expenses could doom a mercenary squadron no matter what.

"It's no big deal, we just have a smaller profit margin that's all. Besides, we're still better off than Star Wolf, who only have a starship on loan to them."

"You mean they had a starship. We're going to blast that thing into oblivion!" Karl enthused.

"Damn straight!" Mark agreed. "We'll teach the Venomians not to tangle with Cornerian holdings anymore!"

As Ed climbed into his Arwing he said "I'm heading over to the Academy."

"Why?" asked Mark

"I have to transfer my personal effects over to the _Black Knight_" Ed replied "I didn't get a chance to since I was sent into combat right after graduating."

"I'll come with you," said Mark "You probably will need help moving some of your stuff, and I need to get my stuff too."

"Yeah sure whatever," said Ed

__

CDF Military Academy, 5 minutes later

Ed finished loading almost all of his personal effects into his Arwing's cargo compartment. "All right that's about it." He said to Mark.

"What about this stash of porno mags I found under your bed?" Mark asked

"Burn 'em"

"Why? All used up?"

"No, it's just that I've found a girlfriend, so I don't need the pornos"

"Wait…who? When?" Mark asked

"Well, you know Katya?"

"Who, the collie you saved in the lab?"

"EXACTLY!" Ed replied "It seems that she had some feelings for me, and saving her life was the clincher."

"You like her back?"

"Yeah…she's attractive, and she's smart. She'd have to be if she's in Shadow Wing."

"Well, good for you." Mark said "I think it's great that you've finally gotten over Jenna Sandoval."

"Wow…4 girls after her and you're STILL talking about her."

"It's not my fault you pined for her all this while." Mark shot back

"Look, just drop it okay?"

"Fine, you're right that I shouldn't bring up the past."

Ed walked out of the room towards the hangars, Mark following him. "So does this mean I can have the porno mags?" Mark asked

"Whatever!" was Ed's only reply

Chapter 24

Black Knight: Observation Deck, Cornerian orbit, June 16, 2550, 1400 hours 

Ed stood on the observation deck, looking out at the stars _Only a little less than one hour to go before I ship out to take the fight back to the Imperial Army_ he thought. 

Katya walked up to him "Hey, what's up?"

"Oh," Ed said "Hi Katya. I'm just thinking."

"About what?" she asked.

"Lots of stuff…" he answered. "The war, that Death Prism, and also, who Jack Vong really is."

"Why would you be thinking about Jack?" she asked

"Well, it's kind of a long story" 

"Don't worry, I have time to listen" she said

"Okay, here's the backstory"

Ed told Katya of the incident that occurred 1 year ago when the Venomians attacked Corneria, and how Ed, Mark, Kyle, and Dave had gone to fight them. He then went on to tell of the tragic and odd circumstances of Dave's death, including how his body and his wrecked Arwing were never found.

"So what does that have to do with Jack Vong?" Katya asked

"Wait one minute, I'll be right back." Ed said

He returned shortly carrying a katana.

"Does this katana seem similar to you?"

"Yes…it's just like the one Jack uses…"

"Exactly. See Dave had 3 such swords. All of them custom made for his preferences. When he died, Mark, Kyle and I went through his stuff. I got one of the swords, Kyle got the other."

"And the third?"

"Suspiciously missing." Ed answered "But here's the clincher to my theory on Jack Vong's true identity. When he saved me from the 5 imperial soldiers down in the lab, he used a complex series of martial arts moves and sword techniques that I have only seen once before…done by Dave Cheng."

"Well, I can't really verify your theory" Katya said, "because I myself have no clue where Jack Vong came from. He just showed up one day as a new addition to Shadow Wing."

"All right…I guess I'll find out the truth eventually" Ed replied "Just don't tell anybody that we had this talk…okay? I don't want to sound crazy."

"Okay." Katya answered. Hey…you want to go get something to eat down planetside?"

"I can't right now. I have to go to Fortuna in a few minutes."

"Why? I thought only Starfox was being sent there."

"Well, I kinda went mercenary, just so I could go. So right now, you're talking to a new mercenary squadron commander."

"Well…that seems a little extreme…but at least you're like Shadow Wing now…free from the bureaucracy."

"Yeah…that's another reason"

"Well, I guess we won't see each other for a while."

"No…we will. I want you to petition for Shadow Wing to help us out for our attack on the Death Prism…we'll need the extra fighters. I'm sure General Pepper would agree."

"I'll do what I can" Katya answered

"Thanks. I'll be seeing you soon." Ed said as he embraced her

"Come back safely," she said as she hugged him tightly

"I will."

Chapter 25

Black Knight, Cornerian Orbit, 1440 hours 

"We are ready to enter hyperspace on your command." Said ROB-2 to Ed.

"Commence hyperspace jump!" Ed ordered

The _Black Knight _jumped into hyperspace, en route to Fortuna. The _Great Fox _also jumped to hyperspace.

"We will reach Fortuna in 2 minutes." ROB-2 reported

"All right, as soon as we exit, we will launch. We will then come down directly on top of the captured Frontier Defense Base." Ed said "For cover, the _Black Knight _will open fire on the _Dire Wolf_, and then destroy other ships by order of threat. I want to save the _Dire Wolf's_ destruction for last, as I want O'Donnell to see how much I mean business. Any questions?"

"Yeah…what should we do when StarWolf shows up?" Mark asked

"Well, I want to engage them myself, but if Starfox wants to tangle with their rivals, then let them. Only offer assistance if it is necessary. Any other questions?" 

Satisfied there were none, Ed smiled "All right, let's go kick ass and take names!"

Ed turned and headed towards the hangar bay.

2 minutes later, Fortuna 

Captain Rodney Carroba of the _Dire Wolf _was sitting at his command chair, overseeing repairs, when the call came in. "Yes, what is it?"

"We've picked up two Cornerian warships dropping out of hyperspace…the _Great Fox _and the _Black Knight_!" cried out the frantic sensors operator.

"Shit! Red Alert, all hands to battle stations!" Rodney shouted. No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the _Black Knight _opened fire. The gauss cannon slug impacted on the front of the _Dire Wolf_. The hypersonic slug punched through the forward shields and blasted apart the charge capacitors for the _Intimidator_-class ship's giga laser cannon. The laser cannon exploded, tearing up the bow of the ship. The force of the blast was sufficient to send the bow upwards, tilting the ship back. Captain Carroba was sent flying backwards by the force of the blast. A fire control panel exploded on the bridge, severely burning the Tactical officer.

"Return fire!!!" Rodney shouted.

"No can do…the chief engineer said. The blast from our giga laser exploding shorted out all major systems, we can't move or fire for a while. It will take maybe an hour at most to fix the problem."

"Get on it!" the Captain shouted

"Sir!" yelled the sensors officer, "Both Cornerian ships are launching their fighters, and the _Black Knight _is opening fire again!"

Rodney regained his footing in time to watch the _Black Knight _fire a plasma shot at a group of _Harlock _frigates. Radney could only watch as two of the frigates were blasted to pieces by the shockwave, a third escaping with heavy burns, before being cut in half by the _Great Fox's_ laser cannons.

"Dear God…" Rodney muttered. "Have all ships begin to fall back, launch fighters for cover!" _Wolf, you'd better be able to hold out with what you have down there_. Rodney worried.

Fortuna's Surface, at that moment 

Ed had launched in time to see the _Black Knight _and the _Great Fox _wipe out 3 _Harlock_ frigates. Now his Arwing, along with his squadron and Starfox, was burning through the atmosphere, directly on course for the captured Frontier Base.

"All right, you know the drill, take out all fighters." Ed said

The 8 Arwings broke through the clouds and dove on the unsuspecting base, all guns firing. Numerous Invader class fighters were destroyed on the ground. But some survived the initial barrage, and took off to combat the Cornerians.

"Heads up! Enemy fighters coming right for us!" Falco shouted

"Disperse and engage at will!" Fox shouted

The 8 fighters broke formation and engaged the enemy. Ed took out 5 Invader IIIs with a charged laser bolt, then blasted another two on Mark's tail.

"Anybody see StarWolf anywhere?" Ed asked

"Negative, maybe they aren't here." Damien suggested

"Or maybe they're waiting for the right moment to attack." Karl put in.

"Well, they're losing that moment fast, the Invaders are up to 50% destroyed" Fox said as he vaporized 4 Invader III fighters coming head on at him.

The remaining Imperial fighters put up a fight, but the combined efforts of both Cornerian Mercenary Squadrons was just too much. The remaining fighters mopped up with little trouble. As the 8 fighters returned to formation, Starwolf chose that moment to strike.

"Looking for us?" Wolf taunted as his squadron dove out of the sun onto the 8 unsuspecting pilots. The laser blasts stuck Falco's Arwing, and Peppy's as well. The 8 ships broke formation, but the damage was already done.

"Heavy damage, cannot pursue!" said Falco

"I'm out of it, heading back" Peppy shouted

"Ed, Slippy and I will escort Falco and Peppy back to the _Great Fox_, cover us." Fox said

"Got it." Ed replied as he swung his fighter to chase Wolf down. "Looks like Fox want us to handle Wolf and his idiot patrol, let's do this!" Ed shouted to his squadron.

"All right, ready for round 2, Leon?" Mark shouted into his comm.

"I think you overestimate your chances of survival, dog!" Leon retorted.

The 8 ships boosted towards one another. A heavy exchange of laser fire ensued. When the dust cleared, Ed was tailing Wolf, matching his every move. To Ed's right. Karl mercilessly blasted apart Andrew's fighter.

"NOT AGAIIIINNNNNN!!!!" Andrew yelled as his fighter went down.

"That's one, Wolf…your chances are looking grim." Ed taunted as he blasted armor off of Wolf's fuselage.

"I don't think so…" Wolf said as he pulled a 5 G barrel roll in an attempt to evade Ed. 

"Amateur!" Ed shot back as he matched Wolf's maneuver. He passed Mark, who blasted the right wing off of Leon's Wolfen II, forcing the lizard down.

"I think you should give up while you still have the chance!" Ed laughed at Wolf, as he continued firing his lasers at the Wolfen II.

"Freaking bird!!" Pigma yelled as one of Damien's laser barrages hit the Wolfen II's engine. Pigma's fighter was also out of the fight.

"Looks like it's just you and me!" Ed said as he struggled for a solid lock on Wolf's engine.

"You're quite good, Wallace…" Wolf said "I'd like to offer you a proposal."

"Quit trying to distract me!" Ed said as he fired a shot from his lasers. "I guess if you want the proposal to be your last words, then speak your mind"

"Look, we're not so different you and I" Wolf said "We're both mercenaries, we fight for cash. What say you switch allegiances? Whatever the CDF is paying you, the Imperial Army can double it. What do you think about that?"

Ed was pissed. He was absolutely certain Wolf actually thought he could get away with bribery. Ed was about to blast Wolf from the sky, when he had a better, and far more sinister idea. Ed deactivated his targeting computer, and his IFF beacon. He then activated a low-level ECM mask, and started flying towards Wolf's fighter. He could see that Wolf had stopped trying to evade since Ed turned off his target lock.

"Ed, what are you doing?" Mark asked as Ed flew his fighter above Wolf's

"Just having a little fun with the bastard before I blow him up." Ed said as he inverted his fighter and closed in on Wolf.

Wolf was sure his gamble had worked, when suddenly a large shadow obscured his fighter. He looked up, and saw Ed. Ed had inverted his fighter so that the two wolves could see each other face to face. Wolf also noticed that Ed was extending his middle finger at Wolf

"That's what I think about your proposal, you cycloptic bastard!" Ed yelled as he slammed on the airbrakes, moved into Wolf's six-o-clock position, and, without using his targeting computer, put a laser burst right into Wolf's engine. Without power, the Wolfen II slowly dropped down the frozen terrain, skipping along the ground, before grinding to a halt, with black smoke pouring out of it's tail section. Ed landed his Arwing 20 meters from the crash, and leapt out. Nearby, Damien, Karl, Mark, and Fox, who had just returned in time to see Ed shoot down Wolf, landed their Arwings and got out, running after Ed.

"Ed, what do you think, you're doing?" Fox asked as he caught up with Ed.

"That bastard tried to bribe me, and now he's going to pay!" Ed said as he ran towards the wreckage of Wolf's fighter. Fox tried to stop him, but Ed shoved him aside. As Ed reached the wreckage, he saw a shadowy figure emerge from the smoke. It was Wolf, and he was holding a laser pistol. "So you die, Ed Wallace." Wolf said "And my honor is restored." As he pressed the trigger, Ed jumped to the right, into Wolf's blind spot. Wolf let out a curse as his shot missed. With no time to lose, Ed charged straight at Wolf, and punched Wolf in the stomach. As wolf doubled over, Ed wrenched the laser pistol from Wolf's grasp. Wolf then tried to kick Ed in the stomach, but Ed blocked the weak kick. Ed then caught Wolf in the chin with a viscous uppercut. The taller wolf's one eye rolled back in its socket as he slumped to the ground. Ed then drew his Omni-Falcon, and pointed it at Wolf's head. Wolf struggled to stand, but stopped in a sitting position when he saw the gun aimed at him.

Mark, Damien, Karl, and Fox ran up to Ed.

"Ed, don't do it…he isn't worth it." Mark said

"This bastard deserves to die," Ed responded, "He has murdered countless people, committed heinous crimes, and he tried to make me switch sides." The Omni-Falcon trembled slightly in Ed's right hand. "This ends now."

"And if you kill him now, and like this, what makes you think that'll make you better than him?" Fox shot back "Bring him in, let him answer for his crimes."

For a brief second, it looked like Ed might have shot Wolf, but instead he lowered the gun. "You're right Fox, he has to answer for his crimes." Ed then spoke to Wolf. "Wolf O'Donnell, you are hereby under arrest for numerous counts of murder, numerous war crimes, and a bunch of other crimes that you invented."

"I think not," Wolf said as he suddenly dove at Ed, tackling him. Ed dropped the gun, and kicked Wolf off of him. Then Ed heard the hum of 3 fusion engines overhead, as he saw three battle-damaged Wolfen IIs fly overhead. Then Ed noticed that, probably by remote, Wolf had restarted his fighter.

"You set us up!" Ed shouted

"Correct!" Wolf laughed, "and now, I'm leaving!" Wolf sprinted towards his fighter. Ed wasn't about to let him go, however, and he dove for his pistol, and from a crouching position, opened fire. One of his shots caught Wolf in the shoulder, sending him sprawlingiont the cokcpit of his Wolfen II. As the cockpit closed, the other 4 Cornerians started firing their sidearms, but the bullets were useless against the Kevlar/Titainum armor of the Wolfen II. Wolf's fighter rocketed into space

"Get back to the fighters, we're heading back." Ed said

"What, we're not giving chase?" Damien asked

"No, we're going to blast what's left of the Imperial guard fleet into atoms!" Ed shouted

Chapter 26

Fortunan Orbit, 2 minutes later from last chapter 

Wolf winced as the pain in his left shoulder intensified. He couldn't believe the rookie had not only seen through his ploy, but had shot him as well. As he approched the _Dire Wolf, _he noticed that the fleet was almost entirely destroyed. Only two _Zeram _class cruisers were left in addition to the _Dire Wolf_. There were also a few fighters, only about 20 out of the 150 assigned to the 4th Imperial Guard. All of the ships were showing heavy damage.

"Colonel O'Donnell to _Dire Wolf, _what the hell happened out here? " Wolf shouted into his comm.

"It was the new ship Lord Kerrigan warned us about…the _Black Knight_" responded Captain Corraba. "It's vaporized almost all our ships, with help from the _Great Fox_. What you see here is all that is left."

"Damn it." Wolf said. "All right, as soon as we land, recall everybody and prepare to break orbit to hyperspace back to Macbeth. We should at least warn Lord Kerrigan that the Cornerians are striking back."

Black Knight, at the same time 

"Looks like they're preparing to break orbit." Mark said a he looked through the bridge's viewscreen.

"Well, if they escape, then that adds to the guard fleet around the Death Prism" Ed responded "Let's take em out. ROB-2, target lead _Zeram _with Gauss, also target the _Dire Wolf _with the other cannon, on gauss load as well. Move into range and fire, then close to minimum safe distance for plasma cannon."

"Affirmative" ROB-2 said "This is going to be just as easy as the other 7 ships I wiped out"

The _Black Knight _moved about 5 kilometers, then opened fire with a double-barreled gauss assault.

Dire Wolf, main fighter bay 

As Wolf stepped out of his fighter and started to walk towards the bridge, the ship shook violently, throwing the 4 Star Wolf pilots to the floor

"What the hell is was that?" Wolf shouted into his comm

"The _Black Knight _is closing in on us!" Rodney shouted back "We've taken heavy damage on the port side, and _Zeram 2 _has been split in half!"

"Return fire!" Wolf shouted

The _Dire Wolf's _remaining turrets spat out a flurry of lasers and missiles, only to have them bounce harmlessly off the _Black Knight's _shields.

"It's not working!" Rodney said. Then he suddenly gasped "They've fired a plasma shot!"

"Shit!" Wolf yelled "Can we take it?"

"Negative!" the nervous captain yelled "Our shields are too weak! Get the hell out of here, you have 10 seconds!"

The Star Wolf pilots sprinted back towards their fighters and initiated a quick takeoff. They were not more than 700 meters from the _Dire Wolf _when the plasma ball hit. The shot landed just forward of the bridge before detonation. The blast easily tore the bridge of the _Intimidator _class cruiser clean off, and then began to rip it into fragments. The blast also tore the mighty ship in half, and overloaded the fusion core. The combined fusion and plasma blast overwhelmed the nearby _Zeram_, fragmenting it in seconds. The shockwave from these blasts traveled outward, and hit the 4 Wolfen IIs just before dissipating. The blast was sufficient enough to batter the fighters and tear armor away from them.

Wolf was violently thrown forward by the blast, and hit his head on the control console. As he fought for consciousness, he managed to activate his fighter's hyperdrive core to send him to Macbeth. As the Wolfen II entered hyperspace, Wolf passed out.

There was only one part of the _Dire Wolf _still intact, the forward section. The badly burned lump of metal tumbled through Fortuna's atmosphere, and eventually impacted on the continent of DarkSide.

Black Knight 

"Well, I guess that's the end of that" Karl said. As he watched the _Dire Wolf _explode

"Yeah. Even though Star Wolf got away, I'd still say that this went well." Ed responded.

"Now all that's left is to attack the Death Prism." Mark said

"Yeah…" Ed suddenly got a sense of dread.

"What's wrong?" Mark asked

"Nothing…I'm all right." Ed responded. _I can't tell them that I'm worried we might all get killed…what kind of example would that make?_

Then the communicator beeped

Ed answered it "Yes?"

General Pepper's face appeared on the video screen

"How are things going on Fortuna?"

"They're going well. All imperial forces have either escaped or been destroyed." Ed responded.

Just then the communicator beeped again

"Hold on a minute sir…call waiting" Ed said. The picture was replaced by that of a female Gyrfalcon

"This is Captian Rouge Farrell," she said "Of the 4th CDF frontier battalion. Were you the guys that drove off the Imperials?"

"Uhh….yeah, this is Commander Ed Wallace of Black Wolf. StarFox and my squadron drove off the Imperials." Ed responded as he activated a direct link of the conversation over to the _Great Fox_, "why?"

"Because we were the defending unit here when the Imperials attacked. I, and half of my force, were captured, but we escaped and retook the base during the fighting."

"Okay, and?"

"Well, first, thanks for coming here. And secondly, do you know what the CDF commanders want us to do now?"

"Hang on a second," Ed said as he switched back to the General. "Sir, the the commander of the defending CDF force is on the other line, and she's asking for new orders."

"Tell her that if her equipment and vehicles are still in working order, she can resume her duties. Reinforcements are being sent as well, along with new supplies and vehicles."

"Ok," Ed said as he switched back again. "Captain, if you have enough working equipment, you can hold here for a while. Reinforcements have already been dispatched, and are bringing new supplies with them."

"We can hold, I guess." The Captain responded "That is all. Captain Farrell, out"

Ed then switched back to the General. "Now, what's our next move?" he asked

"You move out immediately to Macbeth"

Fox suddenly cut in

"Absolutely not!" Fox shouted "Falco and Peppy's Arwings are badly damaged and need time to repair. In addition, all of our fighters have taken some damage."

"I agree" Ed said "And besides that, 8 fighters and 2 warships versus a guard fleet, and a planet killing battle fortress? I'm sorry but I definitely do not like those odds. How long was the estimate for the Death Prism to be completed

"2 days" said General Pepper

"Then we have one day to repair, and call up reinforcements." Fox said

"Reinforcements?" General Pepper said "All possible reinforcements are tied up in the bureaucracy." 

"Except one…" Ed responded "Shadow Wing Beta Company"

"Somehow I am not surprised you mentioned them." General Pepper answered. "I have recently received a communiqué from Commander Kage requesting be attached your attack force. He says that Lieutenant Williams had managed to convince him and the rest of the squadron that their skills would be needed on such a mission. I have just approved of this request, and they are on their way. You have one day before you go to Macbeth. Pepper out."

The screen blanked out, and then was replaced by Fox's "You managed to have Katya Williams convince Shadow Wing to be dispatched here, didn't you?"

"What can I say?" Ed responded "I have a way with women whose lives I save."

"…I don't think I'm even going to dignify that with a response" Fox said. Then the screen went blank.

"Wonder what that was all about?" Damien asked

Mark was about to tell Damien that Ed and Katya were an item, but Ed elbowed him in the chest as he walked out, glaring at Mark.

Mark limped out clutching his ribs. _I'm gonna kill Ed for that_, he thought.

Chapter 27

_SWS Phantron, Cornerian Orbit, at the same time_

The _Phantron _had just left Corneria, and was approaching the hyperspace jump point. Jenna Sandoval was working on her Arwing when Katya walked up to her.

"Jenna, can I ask you something?"

"Sure…I guess" Jenna said as she stood up.

"You dated Ed Wallace a few years ago, right?"

"Well, I guess you could say that, we were only an item for a couple months."

"Anyways," Katya continued, "What was he like, personality wise?"

"Well," Jenna said, "He seemed nice enough, was very caring…although he did have a temper problem…but I hear that he got that under control recently. Why do you ask all this?"

"Well, I think I'm in love with him."

"What? Just because he saved your life?" Jenna asked "That seems a little odd."

"Well, I also think he looks pretty good, and he's honest and sincere. You're not jealous, are you?"

"No, of course not!" something about the way Jenna answered didn't convince Katya, but she knew better than to try and argue it.

"Then you have no problem about how I feel about Ed?" Katya asked

"No, I don't" Jenna answered.

Then Captain Smirnov's voice came in over the intercom. "Attention all troops, we will be entering hyperspace in 5 minutes, estimated hyperspace travel time to Fortuna, 2 to 3 minutes."

"Guess we'd better get ready…" Katya said, and she walked out of the hangar.

Black Knight, at the same time…kinda 

Fox had flown his Arwing over to speak with Ed. He found Ed standing on the observation deck…just staring off into space.

"What's up?" Fox asked Ed

"The usual…the war…the goddamn Death Prism…and how we're going to destroy it, but that's obviously not why you came over here."

"Uh…yeah. I cam over here to ask how the hell you convinced Katya to convince Shadow Wing to convince the CDF to be sent here to help us" Fox said.

"Well…that's a little complicated, but okay. After saving her life down at the lab, Katya has developed a powerful attraction to me. Needless to say, I am also quite attracted to her. Therefore, she wants to be here to assist us so that I don't get killed somehow."

"You couldn't have just said that before?" Fox asked.

"Well, knowing Damien and Falco, they just might blow it out of proportion, and I have a slight problem with that."

"Hey, I know the feeling…I'm also involved with a girl. Ever hear of Captain Fara Phoenix?" Fox asked

"Well…yeah actually. She used to be the flight instructor at the Academy just prior to the Lylat War." Ed answered.

"Yeah. Well, she resigned her training post to head up the 43rd CDF Fighter Squadron. They helped us out in Sector Y. Anyways, we kinda hit it off real well, and have been together ever since…when we can."

"I'm guessing you don't see her much." Ed said.

"That's true…" Fox answered glumly "She got a two week shore leave just before war broke out. Now, I'm not sure if I'll see her again"

__

Wow…even he is afraid of dying in combat Ed thought "Look, why don't you go see her?"

"What?" Fox asked

"Go see her. We've got 24 hours before we have to go to Macbeth, you can go see her and then return in time to go to Macbeth"

"You're right…I'll go see her…she should still be at Corneria. Just don't let Pepper know I've left…he might worry I won't get back in time."

"All right, I won't let anybody know you've left," Ed said, "just get back here before we leave."

"Will do," Fox said, as he walked out of the observation deck, and towards the hangar. Ed turned back towards the stars, and looked out into space. _What will happen at Macbeth? _He wondered, _am I doomed to end my career there, vaporized by a planet-killing beam, or shall I take my revenge on Kyle, the man I once called my friend?_

He almost didn't hear his communicator beep. "Yes?" he said.

"Ed, the _Phantron _is coming out of hyperspace." Said ROB-2 "An Arwing has been launched…It's Katya's"

"Very well, tell her I'll meet her in the hangar" Ed answered

"Affirmative" ROB-2 responded

Ed slowly walked towards the hangar, an uncertain future bearing down on him.

Ed reached the hangar as Katya's Arwing set down. She got out and walked towards him, but slowed when she saw the concerned and worried look on his face.

"What's troubling you?" she asked

"Nothing," Ed said "Honestly it's nothing"

"Well, as you can see, I managed to get Shadow Wing attached to the strike force. Hopefully our stealth ships should be able to gather valuable intel on the Death Prism before we attack it."

"That's good…" Ed said.

"What's on your mind, really?" she asked him

"Well, I figured we could maybe, go out to dinner or something. I hear there's a great restaurant at the base…they might have it open again by tonight."

"Okay," she said "When should we go?"

"How about 1830 hours?" Ed suggested.

"Okay, see you then!" she said. She kissed him on the cheek, and ran back to her fighter.

Ed, with his spirits lifted a bit, walked out of the hangar as Katya's Arwing rocketed back into space.

Chapter 28

__

Fortuna Frontier Defense Base, Brunswick, Fortuna, June 16th, 2550. 1855 hours

Ed had requisitioned one of Shadow Wing's shuttles so that he and Katya were able to go down to the base together. They were in luck, as they found out that the restaurant was fully up and running already. Apparently, the Imperials decided it was important to leave a major source of food intact. Ed's prediction was correct, it was a great restaurant. It offered up "some of the best fired chicken ever!" in Ed's opinion. Katya, surprisingly, also agreed with him. Afterwards, Katya decided to give Ed a tour of the _Phantron…_at least, the declassified parts of it.

"And this is the part of the ship that houses the radar stealth system." Katya said gesturing to a door marked "TOP SECRET!"

"Can I see the stealth system?" Ed asked

"Unfortunately, no. For two reasons. One, Jason doesn't entirely trust you, and two, Ivan is just looking for an excuse to get you in trouble." Katya answered.

"Ah…right." Ed said. "Look, you've shown me around your ship, how about I show you around mine? I mean, all you've really seen is the hangar, my quarters, and the observation deck."

"Sure, I'd really like to see the _Black Knight_. I mean, it is a unique ship." She said.

"Very well, follow me." Ed said

"This is the armory." Ed said as he opened the massive doors to the _Black Knight's _armory.

"Wow," Katya said as she saw the array of weapons mounted on the walls, some of them still in pristine crates. "There's enough here to start or end a war."

"That's what I said." Ed answered. "To be honest, I never thought the ship would carry personnel weapons during trials, but it sure does come in handy. Come on, I'm now going to show you a part of the ship I myself haven't visited yet."

The two of them walked down the 2000-foot length of the ship towards the stern. "How big was the crew of this ship supposed to be?" Katya asked as they walked. 

"ROB-2 said that there was supposed to be a crew of 100, but I find that redundant, what with ROB-2's ability to run things pretty well. I guess most of the crew would be pilots and soldiers, or something like that" Ed answered. Finally, they reached a set of doors. Ed opened them, and they stepped into a massive room. The room had two massive barrels on either side, with some control consoles in the middle.

"What is this place?" Katya asked

"This," Ed said smiling, "is the main component storage station, and Fire Control station, of the Omni-Cannons."

"Why are the component barrels so large?" Katya asked

"It's simple really…there a 5 different loads for the Omni-Cannons, gauss railgun, autocannon, particle beam, plasma, and pulse laser. The barrel rotates to install whichever component is requested…almost instantly. Usually ROB-2 or the tactical officer fires the guns from the bridge…but in some cases, you need to use the consoles here to fire the guns. At least, that's my understanding."

"Wow…that's brilliant design technique. Arspace Dynamics outdid themselves." Katya said in awe.

Then Ed showed her the lounge, basically an area where the crew went to relax and eat…almost like some kind of bar.

"Hmm…this lounge is almost as good as the one on the _Phantron_…" Katya said

"Kind of odd to brag about a lounge…" Ed said.

"You know…you're right." Katya said "So, you ready for tomorrow?"

At the mention of tomorrow…Ed's fears came back full force, and the worried expression on his face came back.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Katya asked, concerned.

"Well…kind of…but it's more of an issue on my end."

"Well, why don't you talk about it?"

"I'd rather not let my squadron hear…"

"Then let's go to your quarters" Katya suggested.

"Uh…okay" Ed said

They got to his quarters, and Ed locked the door behind him.

"Now, tell me what the problem is," Katya said.

"Well, I'm worried about what may happen tomorrow. Specifically, what might happen to myself, my friends…you."

"What exactly?"

"Well, I keep running the battle through my head, and it either ends with me being vaporized by one of the planet killing cannons, or I have to face Kyle in a duel to the death…and I don't know what the outcome is…except for after my ship is vaporized, the Death Prism kills the entire attack force…and then moves on to Corneria. My main worry is that when the chips are down…I'll fail…or worse." Ed buried his face in his hands.

Katya placed a hand on the wolf's shoulder. "Look, you're not the only one who has these fears of death. I've been worrying about them too, and so has probably everyone else who's going to attack the Death Prism…except for the two ROBs, but that's because they are robots."

"Yeah…but if I show my fear…what kind of example will that set to everybody?"

"…so you're worried about looking like a failure in addition to failing." Katya said.

"Exactly…but it's also in addition to the fear of death…or the death of my friends…I feel helpless at the moment…knowing that it not might be possible to make good on my promise that Kyle will never kill again."

Katya embraced Ed "Look…you will succeed tomorrow…you have to just remain confident."

Ed returned the embrace "You know…you're right…I just hope I don't lose you in the fight…before I can really get to know you."

Katya looked at Ed with a mischievous grin. "I know something that might help, with the getting to know me part…and the constant worrying."

"And what might that be?" Ed asked.

Katya, without saying anything, pushed Ed backwards onto his bed. Then she pounced on top of him, bringing her muzzle to his. Ed returned the affection, passionately kissing her, their tongues intertwining. Katya removed Ed's jacket as Ed rolled her onto her back.

"So," Ed said as he broke the kiss and started to remove his shirt. "this is what you had in mind?"

"Yes…" Katya said as she looked deep into his eyes. "You never know if we may get this chance again" and with that Katya helped Ed finish pulling off his shirt. She then forced Ed onto his back, and ran a claw over his furry chest, their combined warmth heating the area. She seductively removed her flight jacket and shirt, then went to work on Ed's pants. Ed turned Kaya back onto her back, and started romivng her pants as well.

Now only in their undergarments, they embraced tightly, their muzzles locked in a passionate kiss.

"Ed, please try to be gentle." Katya said

"I will…don't worry" Ed replied, as the last vestiges of clothing they had on were removed and Ed lay on top of Katya, his hands rubbing her breasts…

***(Author's Note: and the rest…is censored (hey…PG-13))***

__

Same Place, June 17th, 2550, 0800 hours

Ed looked over at Katya, and smiled. She smiled back as he gently stroked her brown fur. She was still drowsy, as they had just woken up a few minutes ago.

"That was wonderful…" Ed said

"Yeah…" Katya replied sleepily "Any idea what time it is?"

"It's like, 8 in the morning…ask me if I really care."

"Only 6 more hours…you feeling up to this now?" Katya asked

"Believe me…I'm not going to let anything bad happen now." Ed answered. "So, how do you think everyone will take our relationship?"

"I don't think it'll be a major issue. I mean, it's not like we're being irresponsible."

__

That's true, Ed thought, _We did use protection…after all_.

"Yeah…you're right." He said to Katya as he kissed her on the cheek

***

__

Fara Phoenix's apartment, Some apartment _building on Corneria, 0830 hours_

"Leaving so soon?" Fara asked as Fox pulled his pants on.

"Yeah…unfortunately. I have to go to Macbeth in a few hours, and I don't wanna be late" Fox replied. In truth, Fox didn't want to leave at all. But he had a job to do. Still, his visit with Fara had been rewarding, and had helped him shake off some of the fears he had been having about the mission. "I'll try to get back as soon as the mission is over. Maybe we can go to Zoness or something" Zoness, while still recovering from the eco-disaster Andross had unleashed a year ago, was now almost completely restored to it's former glory.

"That sounds good." Fara answered. "I'll talk to you when you return"

"Okay, see you later." Fox said as he finished getting dressed, and walked out of the apartment.

Chapter 29

_Macbeth, June 16th 2550, 1900 hours (_NOTE: Hmmm…Kinda the Quentin Tarintino approach to storytelling_)_

Wolf and his squadron had managed to limp their way to Macbeth using a series of short hyperspace jumps. Now as Wolf slowly apprached the guard fleet surrounding the Death Prism, he tried to figure out a way to tell Kyle he had lost possesion of Fortuna, and live. As he approached the _Saruzin II_ carrier _Venom_, his comm beeped. He answered it, and saw it was General Katlin Stienburg.

"Yes, General?" Wolf asked

"Judging by the fact that your squadron arrived alone, I'd say you were soundly defeated on Fortuna, right?" asked the General.

"Yeah…where is Kyle, by the way?"

"He's on the Death Prism, but I don't feel you need to report your failure to him."

"Why?"

"Because Caine and I are planning to break away from Kyle's ambitions. You see, we have been using Kyle to achieve our goals. We would like you to also abandon Kyle's path. We are willing to double the amount of money you get."

"Done." Wolf said. To be honest, he didn't really like Kyle anyway.

"Excellent choice, O'Donnell" Said Steinburg, "Please dock with the _Venom_, to secure the fact that Kyle will not know you are here"

***FAST FORWARD***

Black Knight, Fortuna Orbit, 1230 hours 

Ed was out on maneuvers in his Arwing with the rest of his squadron, and loving every minute of it. He seemed to be flying at a level that far surpassed his usual antics

"Ed, you, uh…kinda seem a little overjoyed to be out practice flying." Mark said

"Really?" Ed asked as he pulled a couple of loops for the hell of it "I don't notice anything out of the ordinary"

Mark then switched to the private channel. "Ed, seriously, did something happen between you and Katya last night?"

"Well, since I'm in such a good mood, I'll tell you. Yes! Twice! And once this morning." Ed replied.

"Uh, Erm…" Mark said

"You asked"

"Yeah…I don't think I'll be asking again anytime soon."

"What's the big deal? So there was some sexual tension that evolved into a night of passion, big deal!" Ed said.

"Hey, I'm not saying anything bad about that…unless you didn't use protection."

"Now, you're just implying I'm stupid. I think we both know that I'm not an idiot"

"Okay…I think I'm going to end this conversation now."

As the channel cut out, Ed smiled _Yes, _he thought _Things are really starting to look up_.

Then he saw the gray Arwings belonging to Shadow Wing fly nearby, also engaged in practice maneuvers. He opened a channel to Katya "So, how are you doing?" he asked.

"Just fine, lover." She said as she dipped her wings as if in a salute of some kind. "So, you know there's no turning back at this point?"

"I know, and I am ready to face whatever comes next, especially with you to support me." Ed replied as he returned the wing salute.

Then Jason somehow cut in. "Katya, if you're done messing around with Ed, return to formation."

"Okay," she said begrudgingly. "Ed, we'll talk later"

Damien buzzed Ed's comm. "Is there something going on between you and Katya, or something?"

"Yes indeed," Ed replied "Ask Mark for the basic details"

"Why not just tell me?" 

"Fine" Ed told him, in more detail than he probably should have

"Man, did you have to be so graphic?" Damien asked

"You asked. Now unless you want others to experience mental scarring, I suggest you just tell Karl yourself." Ed said as he started heading back to the _Black Knight_.

Chapter 30

Black Knight, 1359 hours 

"Okay, this is it. We jump in well out of radar range, ascertain the defenses, and then we strike. Got it?" Ed said to Fox and Jason

"Got it." Fox said

"Affirmative" Jason said

"Very well. Hyperspace jump in one minute!"

1 minute later, the _Black Knight_, the _Great Fox_, and the _Phantron _jumped to Macbeth, and the Death Prism.

END OF PART 5


	6. The Lethal Shade of Gray

Enter Black Wolf: Part 6

The Lethal Shade of Gray

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Macbeth, June 17th, 2550, 1405 hours

The three Cornerian Warships emerged from hyperspace well out of the Imperial sensor range. 

"We're going to sneak in and take a look, we'll record the whole thing, you should be able to see it on your viewscreens." Jason Kage said as the _Phantron _slowly accelerated towards the planet. On the bridge of the _Black Knight_, Ed used the viewscreen to see what they saw. They began approaching the planet, and Ed could see the Death Prism, in orbit. Right now it just looked like an ugly black rectangle, but Ed soon knew its full presence would be shown soon.

"We've passed through the outer sensor ring…no indication of being noticed" Jason reported

The _Phantron _continued on course. When they were about 500 km, from the Death Prism. They stopped. "We're zooming in now, and activating sensor sweep. We'll relay all data to your computers."

The camera zoomed in, and the fearsome appearance of the Death Prism was revealed. It was bristling with laser turrets, in addition to the 5 massive prism cannons mounted on 5 of its 6 faces. _If looks could kill, We'd be dead 5 times over,_ Ed thought.

"The scan will be completed in 2 minutes, we'll be careful." Jason said as he terminated the communication.

The next two minutes, fortunately, passed without any incident. The _Phantron _turned around and headed back.

"Two hyperspace singnatures off our port side!" ROB-2 suddenly excalimed.

"Think we've been spotted?" Jason asked

"Unlikely" Fox answered, "There were no signs of any alert raised by the guard fleet."

"Getting a sensor read…contacts are one Arwing, and one Invader fighter bearing a friendly IFF code." ROB-2 responded. "The Arwing pilot is hailing the _Great Fox_."

"Send a broadband transmission link to all friendly ships." Fox said as he opened the channel.

"Fox, I thought you could use some help." Said Fara Phoenix. 

"Fara!? What? How did you get here?" Fox shouted

"I flew here, I'm still on leave, remember? I also brought Katt Monroe here as well."

"What? Why?!" Falco shouted as he cut in on the channel.

"Is that anyway to greet a girl?" The pilot of the Invader answered. Ed saw that she was a purple furred cat. _So this is Katt Monroe_, Ed thought. He had heard about her rendering assistance to Starfox on Zoness and in Sector Z during the Lylat War, but he had no idea how she managed to ever steal an Invader-class fighter from the Imperial forces.

"Look, Falco, we're here to help and there really isn't much you can do about it." Katt continued. "And judging by the size of that weapon, you're going to need it."

"Very well…" Falco said, a little angry, as the _Phantron _made it back to the rest of the fleet.

Ed opened a channel to all allied ships in the area. "Meeting on board the _Black Knight_, in the ready room." He said. "Jason, bring the data you collected"

Everybody radioed in a confirmation.

Chapter 31

_Black Knight Ready Room, 5 minutes later_

Jason addressed the 21 other pilots in the ready room. "Here is the data we have on the Death Prism's systems and it's guard fleet."

Jason tapped a few buttons, and the monitor showed the Death Prism and its 10 capital ship escort. "The guard fleet consists of 4 _Saruzin II _cruisers, the _Cabal, _the _Venom_, the _Diamondback_, and the _Andross_. There are two _Grazan II _assault carriers, the _Manchuria, _and the _Pyongyang_. 2 of the ships are _Zeram-II _cruisers, named_ Ghost, _and _Shade_. We believe they are named this because they have an Imperial version of the stealth device, similar to the one on the _Phantron_. The last two ships are the _Intimidator-_class warships _Fenris _and _Loki_. These ships are currently in low power mode, with no weapons or shields online. A quick assault would end things quickly, but there is a snag." 

Jason scrolled the image down a bit, revealing two disc shaped contacts. The discs had axis needles potruding from the center going up and down.

"These are Umbra-II defense stations. They have heavier armor and weaponry than the original Umbra stations, plus a new kind of laser cannon. The cannon uses a supercollider effect to fire a powerful beam at the target area. These two stations must be taken offline before we can attack the main fleet, and without raising alarm. However, there is yet another snag."

Jason scrolled back up to the Death Prism, and tapped a button. A yellow elliptical shape encompassed the battle fortress. "The Death Prism has ultra-powerful deflector and reflector shields, more powerful than any other shielding system in the Lylat system. We can overload the quadrants with concentrated fire, but by then, they may be ready to fire the Prism Cannon. Our scans revealed the cannons are almost fully charged, yet still on standby. Even if we drop the shields, they may still get a chance to use the cannon before we can destroy the Prism."

"Wait…I have an idea." Ed said "What is the material composition of the prisms?"

"It's the same kind of glass used on bridge viewscreens/windshields." Jason answered. "What do you have in mind?"

Ed got up and used the console to show the Death Prism, the guard fleet, the Umbra II stations, and the Cornerian attack force. "My idea is we hack the weapons controls of both Umbra stations to destroy one another, before they can sense our approach. We then move in on the Death Prism, but stop well out of their cannon range. The real question is…can we fire the plasma cannons accurately from the minimum safe distance from the Death Prism?"

ROB-2, who was also at the briefing, reported that it was possible.

"Okay then. Here's the rest of the plan." Ed continued as he manipulated the image to show what he was talking about. "We fire the plasma cannons, both barrels, at the Death Prism's forward shield, thus weakening it. This may also take out some of the guard fleet. Then we will launch all fighters in an attack run on the Death Prism. The _Black Knight_ will provide cover by firing it's gauss cannons at any capital ships that get in range. When we get to the Death Prism, all fighters will launch nova bombs at the forward shield of the Death Prism. This should drop the shield. Then, my squadron will fly in and release 1 Flechette Maverick Torpedo at the glass prism. Thusly, the glass will shatter…"

Fox suddenly got the hang of it. "And then their forward cannon will only be as strong as a heavy laser!" he exclaimed

"Exactly!" Ed shouted "And if we get lucky, we can irreparably damage the cannon as well, possibly forcing a weapons system restart."

"Well, that's all well and good, but how are we going to destroy the Death Prism? The scans show super thick armor plating that I doubt even the gauss cannons can punch through." Ivan Marlowski asked

"This is where phase 2 of my plan kicks in." Ed said. "Since a capital ship attack is out of the question, and our fighters will be soon outnumbered by the many ships the guard fleet is guaranteed to launch, we must destroy the Death Prism from the inside. After we destroy the forward cannon, all capital ships will move in to support the fighters. Before the forward shield goes back online, all fighters are to try to fly into the forward hangar bay. Whoever makes it in will then fight their way to the bridge, destroy the reactor controls, and get the hell out. Any fighter still outside the Death Prism should just hold tight and fight off any fighters attacking the capital ships. The capital ships should target the carriers first, and then select targets by threat. Any questions?"

Nobody spoke for a second, then Fox stood up "Ed, this is one of the most insane plans I have ever heard suggested. You are taking an awful risk, infiltrating the battle fortress to destroy it. However, since there is no other choice, you have my full support and belief that this plan will succeed, and I say to hell with sanity!"

The comment brought on a wild cheer from the pilots assembled. Ed smiled at their confidence in the plan, despite the risks. "All right, let's get to work."

Chapter 32

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Death Prism, _4 minutes later_

Kyle Kerrigan, WarLord of the Imperial Army of Venom, sat at the command chair on the bridge of the Death Prism. He was gleefully counitng the remaining seconds until launch

__

86395…94…93…92 he thought, when suddenly the communicator beeped

__

When I find out who made me lose count… he thought as he answered the comm. "What is it?!"

"Sir, something has happened to both Umbra stations…they've disappeared off our sensors!" said the Sensors officer

"Didn't you say sensors might go offline or have malfunctions during the startup?" Kyle asked

"Yes…but…"

"Then that is all that happened, let me know when you get the sensors working correctly." Kyle said as he severed the connection. Unable to continue counting, his thoughts turned to other issues. _I wonder why Wolf hasn't reported in yet…_ he wondered. Wolf was supposed to report the situation on Fortuna every 24 hours. Right now he was almost 10 hours past the last deadline. _I'm sure there's just a malfunction with communications…it's bound to happen on a new ship such as this._

Black Knight, same time 

What Kyle didn't know however, was that the Umbra II stations had wiped out one another when Ivan and Ed hacked the weapons controls on both stations, and made them blast each other to pieces. The battle group now moved past the burning remains of the defense stations, and towards the Death Prism. The 3 cruisers flew in close formation, so that the _Phantron's _stealth field jammed enough of the radar signatures of the other 2 ships.

"We're almost at minimum safe distance." Reported Captain Robert Smirnov.

"Preparing to stop…" ROB-2 reported

The three ships halted a few seconds later. From here, Ed could see the Death Prism in greater detail, as well as a few of the larger escorts. _They won't even know what hit them…_Ed thought _A little cruel…but there is no other way._ "Activate Omni-cannons on plasma load. Target forward shield of Death Prism…fire when ready." He ordered as he started walking towards the hangars. "Let's go, we don't have much time." He said to his squadron.

Death Prism, 2 seconds later 

An alarm went off on the battle fortress "What the hell!?" Kyle exclaimed

"Sir! We've detected two balls of plasma headed right for us…seems like they were fired from a ship! Impact in 10 seconds! Our shields will hold, but the escorts have no shields up!" reported the tactical officer.

"RED ALERT! Tell all ships to raise shields!" Kyle frantically shouted. He knew Ed had somehow gotten to Macbeth, no other starship had plasma cannons, except for the _Black Knight_.

None of the ships were able to get their shields up in time. When the plasma shots detonated against the Prism's shields, the shockwave traveled outward at double strength towards the lead two ships, the _Cabal _and the _Arbold_. Both ships were consumed by the shockwaves, torn into large pieces by the concussive force. There was no chance anybody survived the blast at all. A few burnt pieces of the two ships tumbled towards the planet, soon to burn up in the atmosphere.

Kyle stood up after the blast had thrown him to the ground. "Damage Report!" the hyena barked

"Forward shields at 25%. The _Arbold _and the _Cabal _have been completely destroyed!" said the TO.

"Is the forward Prism Cannon ready?"

"Yes…"

"Then move out…find the _Black Knight_, and use the cannon on it!" Kyle snarled.

Black Knight 

"Looks like we got their attention." ROB-2 said "The Death Prism is coming right for us"

"Okay, then," Ed said as his Arwing flew out into space "It's time to give Kyle a bloody nose he'll never forget." Ed adjusted his Katana, his K21, and his Omni-Falcon, so they didn't hamper his piloting. _Kyle, If I make it onto the Death Prism, which I will, I will kill you_ he thought, as he led Mark, Damien, and Karl towards the massive fortress. 

"All right, you all know what to do." He said to the Shadow Wing and Starfox pilots, who were flying ahead of his own squadron. 

Right now, Fara and Katt were flying in formation with Starfox, as if they were an integral part to the team. _And maybe that's what they are…_ Ed thought as the 22 fighters went straight towards the target, closing the distance rapidly. Ed watched as the Shadow Wing and Starfox fighters released their nova bombs, impacting on the fortress's shields. The shields flickered and died as the bombs overloaded them.

"I'm picking up a power spike, they must be trying to fire the cannon!" Damien shouted.

"Well, we'd better hurry up then!" Mark shouted

The 4 fighters were 800 meters from the front of the Death Prism when they each fired a Maverick Torpedo on Flechette load. The 4 deadly missiles streaked towards their target, with lethal precision.

***

Death Prism forward cannon FCS…10 seconds ago 

"The forward shield is down! We must fire the cannon!" shouted Gunnery Sergeant Mikhail Koresh. Koresh was in charge of aiming and firing the forward prism cannon. He settled the crosshairs on the image of the _Black Knight_, and moved to push the FIRE button. 

Then the Maverick Torpedoes struck.

Each Torpedo carried 100 flechette needles. The 400 needles smashed through the glass on the prism, ruining the focuser. The needles kept going, smashing through flesh, bone, and metal as it tore up the Fire Control room. Then came the explosive decompression.

Koresh had been hit in the leg by a needle, and was bleeding heavily, while trying to hold onto the FCS panel. Then he noticed that a command override had been issued from the bridge to fire the cannon. He looked at the laser, and saw the needles had cause the housing to be damaged so that the cannon now pointed at him. He desparetly tried to hit the shutdown button, but he was too late. The laser's hellish blast vaporized his right arm, and the FCS console, sending Koresh into space to die a cold and lonely death.

The laser didn't stop with Koresh's arm and the console. The beam melted through three decks, and punched a hole through an ammo bay, before dissipating. The blast from the ammo cooking off damaged many Prism Cannon Fire Control circuits, forcing the system into shutdown.

Bridge of Death Prism 

The explosion from the ammo knocked Kyle to the floor. "What just happened?" he asked

"Apparently the laser misfired, and blew out an ammo bay, causing serious damage to the Prism Cannon Fire Control system. The system has shut itself down, and must take an entire hour for restart." Said the worried Tactical Officer.

"Fine, launch all fighters, get the forward shield online, let nothing get through!" Kyle shouted.

Out in space 

"That did it!" Ed shouted "The prism cannons are offline for one hour! All fighters, break for the hangar!"

"Easier said than done…" Falco responded "Enemy fighters launching!"

Ed looked, and saw at least 100 Imperial Invader III fighters come streaking out from the _Grazan IIs_, and the hangar of the Death Prism.

"Take out anyone who tries to stop you!" Ed yelled "We only have at least 30 seconds to get there!"

Ed flew towards the hangar, blasting fighters that got in his way. He had no clue if anyone would get to the hangar along with him…until he saw Mark, Damien, Karl, Fox, and Falco flying towards the hangar as well. As the final few seconds ran down, the 6 Arwings made it into the hangar. The rest of the Cornerian fighters turned around and started fighting the Imperials. The _Black Knight _opened fire with its gauss cannon, splitting a _Grazan II_ down the middle, with Slippy, Fara, and Katt delivering the finishing blow with a nova bomb attack.

Chapter 33

Death Prism 

"Sir, 6 enemy ships have just disappeared from our sensors!" said the TO

"Destroyed?" asked Kyle

"Negative, they were last flying towards hangar bay 1, and then…sir?"

Kyle's face was ashen "Get a security team down to that hangar…on the double!"

"Yes, sir!"

Kyle then contacted Generals Caine and Stienburg, who were on the _Venom_. "I want you to have the remaining escorts fight those capital ships…now!"

"That's suicide!" Caine shouted

"Up yours! Do it or I'll conduct a Prism Cannon test…on your ship!" Kyle shouted back.

"Very well…" Caine said, and then he cut the connection.

"Do we act now?" Steinburg asked

"No…not until we are sure he cannot get to us." Caine said

Death Prism hangar bay 1, 30 seconds later 

The security squad ran down the hall, all 10 soldiers decked out in Mk. VII battle armor. They opened the door to the hangar, and saw the 6 Arwings, just sitting there, but the cockpits were wide open, and it didn't look like anybody was there.

"There's no way they could've passed us, they have to be here" said the squad leader. "Look around."

As they went to look around, the 6 pilots of the Arwings jumped out of the "empty" cockpits. Their K21s blazing a line of death. 5 enemy soldiers fell instantly with bullet wounds to the head. Ed drew one Omni-Falcon, and his Katana, shooting and hacking at the remaining troops while the other 5 pilots provided support. The squad leader was the only one left soon, and he desperately called for backup, but he never finished the sentence as Ed leapt into the air, and ran the jackal through the chest with his katana.

Ed looked around. Nobody had been injured. "Well, I guess it's up to us 6 to do the job." He said. "We should be able to find a map that points us to the bridge, so let's get going."

As they started to walk out…Ed heard a noise coming from the squad leader's communicator. "Ricardo, come in…Captain Ricardo respond!" Ed recognized the voice as Kyle's. Ed grinned as he snatched up the communicator. "Just so you know, Ricardo and his team are dead!" he shouted

"Who…what…Ed?!" Kyle stammered.

"That's right asshole." The wolf snarled "Your day of reckoning is at hand. I am coming to kill you, and you will not be able to stop me."

Ed then threw the communicator to the ground, smashing it to bits. "Now that that is taken care of…what?"

Ed saw that Damien, Karl, Mark, Fox, and Falco were all staring at him "You idiot!" Falco shouted, "You told him we were coming!"

"Wrong," Ed responded "I told him _I_ was coming. As far as he knows, I am alone, and that will be his mistake." 

"Yeah, but he'll send everything he has at you! And as a result…us!" Damien yelled

"No, he won't, he'll send only what he thinks is necessary to kill me. Trust me, he is far too stupid to think that he doesn't need to send an army to stop me. Now, we need to get going. If we move now, we can take most reinforcements by surprise" 

With that, Ed started running towards the door out of the hangar. Warily, the other 5 pilots followed him. _He's a loose cannon,_ Fox thought, _but maybe there is a method to the madness_.

***

Nobody noticed the gray Arwing that flew into the hangar bay after the 6 pilots left. The cockpit opened, and Jack Vong stepped out. Jack immediately set out on the trail of Ed and the other 5 Cornerians.

***

More Imperial troops came, but Ed slashed and blasted his way through them like a samurai Jason Voorhees meets Neo. When the fighting stopped for a second, Ed hacked the central computer to access the maps. "All right, I've got the fastest path to the bridge, as well as any secondary paths in case the fighting gets too hot."

"All right." Fox said "Let's get going"

The door at the end of the hall opened, and more Imperial soldiers came out shooting. The 6 Cornerians dove for cover and returned fire. Some Imperials fell, but they just kept coming

"Is there any other way out of here?" Mark asked Ed.

"Yes, there is a bypass hallway just 5 meters ahead. If we can reach it…" Ed answered as he stepped from cover and opened fire with his Omni-Falcon, and began running for the door.

"Ed, what the hell are you doing?!" Karl shouted as he started firing to save his squadron leader. The other 4 Cornerians slowly reacted to try and save Ed from death.

The 6 Imperials had been taken by surprise by Ed's apparent suicidal charge, and slowly opened fire with their rifles. Ed brought his katana up and started deflecting the bullets. Time slowed down for him as he ran, his pistol emptying it's clip into the Imperial soldiers, while he deflected the oncoming bullets, and while his compatriots assisted him. The Imperial soldiers crumpled under the assault, and the 6 Cornerians had ducked into the bypass hallway before reinforcements could arrive.

As they ran through the hallway, Fox asked "Ed, what the hell was that? I've never seen anybody deflect that many bullets before!"

"That…" Ed answered "Is something I learned from Dave. It's called being in "The Zone". When you reach a certain plane of mental and physical concentration, things tend to slow down, allowing for precise movements like that. It's a big part of the martial arts style Dave studied under. He was able to do that for a complete minute at best. I'm only able to sustain it for maybe 20 or 30 seconds. Even so, I don't use it much, unless I have to."

"Seems to require a lot of physical exertion," Falco remarked as he noticed Ed was running a bit slower, and beginning to lag behind.

"Yeah, but I can usually regain my strength quickly…turn right here." Ed said as they reached a fork in the hallway. 

"Where does this hallway lead?" Karl asked

"According to the map, it leads to a corridor that goes to the main bridge elevator." Ed replied. Just then, the sensors on his shades picked up an odd chemical reading "What the…?" he stopped running, and so did everybody else.

"Ed, what's wrong?" Mark asked

"The chemical sensors on my shades have picked up plutonium 10 decks up…but they're having trouble identifying the source, but the content is too small to be the reactor core, plus that would show uranium."

"Let me see." Fox said as he took the shades from Ed and read the readout superimposed on the left lens. "Dear God…the madman…he's carrying 14 Apocalypse Cruise Missiles on this thing!"

Everybody was shocked. The Apocalypse cruise missile was an improved version of the Copperhead. It was designed to carry nuclear warheads, and as such the CDF had banned and outlawed the use in any of the sectors it controlled. That obviously did not stop the Imperials from creating them, and now Kyle had put some on the Death Prism. Ed could only imagine what Kyle would do, given the chance.

"We have to destroy those missiles, right away!" Falco shouted

"We can't," Ed said glumly "The security locks on that deck can only be deactivated by Kyle, or one of the Generals. It may be possible, though, to disable the locks from the main computer on the bridge, however."

"Then we have to hurry" Fox said "The missiles are offline now, but Kyle may decide to use them against us if things go bad. Radio Jason and tell him of our situation."

Ed contacted Jason, and apprised him of the situation. Jason understood the threat, and he also reported that nobody had been destroyed in the fighting, but Jack reported a communications problem and there hadn't been a reply from him since.

"We'll keep an eye out for him if he made it onto the station." Ed said as he cut the communication. By now the 6 pilots had reached the door to the elevator corridor. They all unslung their assault rifles, and prepared to come out shooting. The door slid open, and the 6 Cornerians charged through it, ready to meet the Imperial guard forces. They dove for cover as the 30 Imperial troops arrayed in front of the elevator opened fire.

Chapter 34

Death Prism, same time 

Kyle laughed as he saw Ed and the others run for cover. "This is too good! Outnumbered 5 to 1, eh Ed?" he shouted "I don't think you'll be coming to kill me after all!"

Then the camera in the hallway went out after 30 seconds of fighting

"Um…" the TO said "Are they dead?"

"What am I, psychic?" Kyle shot back. Then the communicator beeped.

"This is Captain Jamison." Came the voice on the other end. "We've driven back the intruders, at least 1 is seriously hurt. We have some heavy losses. We are returning to the bridge now."

"Good work, Jamison." Said Kyle "I am considering promoting you for your actions"

***

"Good work, Jamison." Ed said to the captured Imperial captain as the communication ended, "Now, activate the elevator" 

Ed and the others had managed to defeat all but 6 of the Imperial guard troops with frag grenades. Falco had taken a bullet to his left wing, which he was busy bandaging, while cursing up a storm. The remaining Imperials had been forced to surrender, and were now taking Ed, Mark, Karl, Damien, Fox, and Falco up to the bridge.

As the elevator went up, the 6 Cornerians got behind the 6 Imperial captives, while training their assault rifles on them. The elevator slowly rose the 5 decks up to the command center of the space fortress, then ground to a halt.

***

Kyle saw the elevator doors slide open, revealing the 6 remaining Imperial troopers, but he noticed something was amiss.

"Captain, what happened to your squad's assault rifles?" Kyle asked.

Svensgaard never got a chance to answer, as the Cornerians opened fire. The bullets tore the Captain's command apart, and then started to work on the bridge crew. Kyle ducked behind his chair, as he realized Ed had made it up to the bridge now, and he was not alone. All around him, he watched as the bridge crew fought back, but were hopelessly gunned down by the Cornerians. Only Kyle and the TO survived, and the TO jumped into an escape pod, and flew away.

Kyle got out from behind his chair.

***

I am death. 

Ed watched Kyle emerge from hiding. Ed slowly walked towards him, Katana drawn.

You cannot escape your fate, Kyle 

Kyle drew his Magnum "Never bring a sword to a gunfight!" he shouted as he fired three times

Ed deflected all three shots, the last one knocking the magnum from Kyle's hand.

Wrong move, Kyle 

Ed ran towards Kyle, but Kyle drew his Katana, also one that had been Dave's, which halted Ed's advance.

"Fine, if you want to fight with swords, than so be it" Kyle said "Prepare to die!"

"Ed, you don't have to do this!" Mark said "Just shoot him and be done with it!"

"What? And lose all morals and honor? Hell, no!" Ed said as he and Kyle began staring one another down. "Bring it, you Hyena bastard!" Ed shouted to Kyle "It's time to do what I should have done a year ago!"

"What's that? Save your friends instead of asking me to do it?" Kyle laughed

"No…KILL YOU!!!" Ed shouted as he leapt towards Kyle. Kyle, though not a master swordsman, easily readied himself to block Ed's rage driven swipe. What he didn't realize was that Ed had tricked him into thinking it was driven by rage, but was instead a well calculated strike. Kyle barely managed to block the overhead chop Ed used on him. Kyle then tried to run Ed through, but Ed knocked the thrust away with lightning fast speed. Both of them blocked each other's attacks, and then struggled to break contact. "Look around you, Ed," Kyle said "See this mechanical monstrosity I have constructed. In a half hour, the cannons will be back online, and all you know will be destroyed"

"Not if you die first!" Ed shouted back as he began attacking again. Kyle was easily parrying his moves, and Ed was starting to tire. His rage-fueled assault was not achieving anything, except fulfilling Kyle's attack plan. As Ed wearily blocked another attack by Kyle, Kyle punched Ed right in the face. The hit sent Ed reeling, and he fell to the ground, his sword clattering just out of reach. Before he could reach it, Kyle pinned Ed to the ground and wrapped a clawed hand around Ed's throat.

"So this is how it ends." Kyle laughed, oblivious to the fact that the other 5 Cornerians were getting ready to kill him "You will slowly lose consciousness as your breath is strangled out of you, Ed. And just before you black out, I'm going to ram Dave's sword through your chest.

At the mention of Dave's name, Ed suddenly remembered his promise he had made. _I will never let Kyle kill anyone again because of my inaction._ Then he thought of Katya, and what might happen to her if he failed to stop Kyle. _Must…not…give up!!!! I WILL WIN!!!_ Ed suddenly got a burst of strength, his right hand wrapped around his Katana's hilt, and he started punching Kyle in the face

"This…ends…now!" Ed shouted as Kyle stood up and backed away, startled by Ed's sudden revival, blood pouring from his face. Ed charged at Kyle, who tried to block the attack, but the force of Ed's attack knocked Kyle's sword free, sending it skittering across the bridge. Then Ed slashed his blade across Kyle's right leg. Kyle yelped in pain, then surprise as Ed kicked him 5 feet backwards.

Ed walked to Kyle's prone form, looking at Kyle's fearful expression as he struggled to escape.

"You were wrong Kyle," Ed said as he raised his sword to impale the hyena "THIS, is how it ends."

"_Iie!"_

The sudden shout caught Ed off guard, and he was even more caught off guard when somebody knocked his sword aside, causing it to embed in the floor next to Kyle.

Ed looked to his right, and saw that Jack Vong had deflected the sword.

"What the hell did you do that for!?" Ed shouted.

"To stop you from making a mistake." Jack said

"What are you talking about? Do you have any idea why I was going to kill him? He caused one of my friends to die, he sold out the CDF, and he built a space fortress loaded with WMDs!"

"You're wrong about one thing." Jack responded

"What!?"

"Dave Cheng did not die last year."

"What are you talking about? I saw his fighter go down in flames."

"You only saw what you were meant to see."

"And how would you know?"

"Because…I am Dave"

"No…you can't…he died!"

"Look at me, except for a few scars, I am exactly the same as I was a year ago. I even have the sword, the third of three. You and Kyle have the other 2." Jack said as he held out his katana

Ed picked up his own katana and compared the two…they were exactly the same.

"If you didn't die, then what happened?"

"I'll tell you!" Kyle said "He found out that I was planning treason!"

"Exactly," the lizard responded "last year I found out that Kyle had been in contact with two Venomian Generals, saying they needed someone to lead the Imperial Army of Venom to destroy the CDF, in case of Andross's demise. Those Generals are now the two leaders of the IAV…General Josef Caine and General Katlin Steinburg. When I went to Lt. Kent about Kyle's doings, he discounted them as a rumor. Somebody, however, did not." 

"Exactly!" Kyle said as he managed to stand up, but he didn't move after that, as Falco, Fox, Damien, Karl, and Mark trained their guns on him. "I found out about your attempt to let the Lieutenant know of what I was planning…so I had General Caine send some assassins to kill you!"

"May I point out…that that attempt failed." Dave said "Your assassins tried to jump me in Corneria City, and I was forced to kill them."

"Wait…I remember hearing about a cadet getting attacked by three mysterious assailants, but the assailants wound up dead." Mark said "You were the cadet?"

"Yes…" Dave said "Anyway…after that incident, I was contacted by Jason Kage, of Shadow Wing. He told me that my life was in danger if I continued to live, knowing what Kyle Kerrigan was planning. He proposed to me a deal. I join Shadow Wing, at the cost of Dave Cheng's identity and life. I reluctantly agreed. So when the Imperials attacked Corneria during the Lylat War, I found my chance to let Dave die. The fighters that shot me down were actually remote controlled fighters flown by Shadow Wing, which fired powered down lasers. Using some movie fire props, I made it look like my Arwing had crashed, and I had died. In reality, the Arwing and I were in one piece. I have been Jack Vong ever since. But since Kyle seems to be defeated, my alias is no longer necessary."

"So…I have been used again…" Ed said, a little angry, yet glad that his friend was still alive.

"Not used…no…otherwise, Kyle would be dead."

"I can never be defeated!" Kyle shouted "I am the emperor!"

"No Kyle…" Dave laughed "You are nothing but a pawn in Generals Caine and Steinburg's plans. It is you who has been used and manipulated. If you don't believe me…just look at your sensors, you'll see the remaining guard ships have not followed your orders, and are in fact moving away from the Death Prism."

Kyle looked at the sensor readout, and he realized Dave was right.

"General Caine, what the hell are you doing? I gave you an order!" Kyle barked into his communicator

"And I am not following it." Caine said "You have outlived your usefulness. Stienburg and I have manipulated you from the start into thinking you were holding the cards, but we knew your plans would never succeed. And even if you destroyed Corneria, it would just make things easier for the two of us to take over the Lylat system. I've already told all the troops on the Death Prism that you are a traitor to the cause, and they have agreed to shoot you on site. I'm surprised you aren't dead already, considering that your TO, who was working for me by the way, said that Ed Wallace, his squadron, and Fox and Falco kicked the shit out of your guard troops. One more thing, O'Donnell is working for me now, so he can't come and save you. Goodbye, idiot."

The connection severed, and Kyle was left ashen-faced, for the second time that day. "No…I've been tricked!" Kyle sank to his knees.

Ed ran up to Kyle, suddenly realizing Kyle could be helped, and maybe come back to the CDF. "Kyle…we have to destroy this thing! If you help us, maybe we can get you a lighter sentence…"

Kyle looked up at Ed. "Why do you want to help me all of a sudden? I just tried to kill you!"

"Because all your rage and hatred was stuff you were told, not you yourself…now, how do we cause a reactor overload?"

Kyle stood up and walked over to a console "This console controls the reactor cooling system," he said as he started pressing buttons "I installed an emergency self-destruct in case of imminent defeat." Kyle stopped pressing buttons, and a low rumbling resonated throughout the fortress, followed by an alert klaxon. 

"The cooling system is destroyed. We have 20 minutes to escape before the reactor goes critical." Kyle said "Don't worry, I also deactivated the shields so we can escape."

"What about the Apocalypse missiles?" Fox asked. "The weapons officers in the missile room could try to launch them as a last resort."

"I have some remote mines." Ed said "We can set them on the missiles, then blow it up. We should still have time to escape if we hurry."

Ed handed Kyle his magnum and his Katana "Kyle, you lead us to the missile room and deactivate the locks."

"No need for me to deactivate the locks on site," Kyle answered. "I can disable them from here" A few keystrokes on the security console later, "That did it, we now have a clear path."

"Well, let's go." Ed said as he headed for the elevator.

Chapter 35

13 minutes later 

"Warning, self destruct in 7 minutes." Said the computer voice

"Thanks for the info" Ed snarled. "We're here, let's get to work

For the last 13 minutes the 8 Cornerians had been fighting their way to the missile bays, and had finally gotten there. Now they were busy placing remote mines on each of the 14 missiles, one per missile.

"As soon as we finish, we have to get at least 400 meters away from this room. The blast will destroy any adjacent rooms as well, but 400 meters ought to be safe."

Finally the last mine was attached, and the 8 pilots started to leave, but just then the door behind them opened, and a crow, wearing an Imperial uniform and wielding a laser pistol stepped out, leveling his gun at Ed. Everybody tried to turn and fire, but they were too slow. All except for Kyle. He leapt into the path of the beam, and took the laser bolt in the back, just beneath the right shoulder blade. The crow was then shot dead, and Ed went to check on Kyle.

"You all right?" Ed asked

"I just got shot in the back, how do you think I feel?" Kyle said wearily.

"You're gonna be okay, we just have to get you out of here." Ed said, knowing full well that Kyle was badly wounded.

"No…leave me, give me the detonator and run." Kyle said, as he coughed up blood, "I can't reach my ship in time, and there are more troops coming, I'll hold them here until you're clear, and then I'll blast this room to bits."

Ed saw Fox was gesturing to him that there were more enemy troops coming. Ed decided that Kyle would have to die here, rather than escape back to the way things were before.

"All right, Kyle. You can stay here, just don't die before you push the button." Ed said as he handed Kyle the detonator. "Let's go." Ed said to the remaining pilots. "We have to hurry."

Ed took one last look, saw Kyle prop himself up against a wall, and shakily salute Ed with the CDF military salute. Ed returned the salute, and then he started running.

***

__

You know, I always did want to go out in a blaze of glory Kyle thought as the Imperial troops stormed into the room. Kyle started firing his gun, dropping troopers left and right. As one Imperial soldier tried to shoot Kyle, the hyena brought up the detonator. 

"This is for using me!" Kyle yelled as he pressed the button…and passed into oblivion.

***

Everybody was thrown forward by the blast as the 14 missiles exploded, taking out all the rooms adjacent to it. Heavy blast doors slammed shut to prevent explosive decompression.

Ed picked himself up, and looked at the door that had cut them off from Kyle's last stand. _Rest in peace…good buddy,_ Ed thought. Then he remembered that they were running out of time, and started running towards the hangar, his compatriots close behind.

***

4 minutes left 

Ed and Mark blasted through 5 Imperial armor troopers.

2 minutes left 

The 7 pilots slammed down a security door behind them as 20 Imperials pursued them relentlessly.

30 seconds 

Ed and the others jumped in their Arwings and started powering them up.

10 seconds 

The 7 Arwings took off and started flying out of the hangar

0 seconds 

The Arwings were 5 kms away when the core went critical. The first blast tore a massive hole in the Death Prism's stern. Subsequent blasts traveled up the length of the battle fortress, ripping it into pieces, before being consumed by a small supernova. The blasts were accompanied by a sound that was like someone was throwing rocks in a window store. The Imperial's mighty superweapon was gone. All that was left were a few large pieces of burnt and torn metal. The remaining enemy capital ships, including the _Venom_, escaped into hyperspace, most likely bound for Venom (the planet, not the ship).

Ed contacted General Pepper, but put the transmission on broadband, so everyone in orbit could hear it. "General, the mission is accomplished. The Death Prism has been destroyed, and the Imperials are in full retreat."

"Good work." The General replied "Any casualties?"

"Just one," Ed said "Senior Warrant Officer Kyle Kerrigan"

"But…wasn't he…?"

"Not at the end." Ed replied "Kyle helped us destroy the Death Prism, after he found out he had been manipulated by his generals. He was killed by his own troops before he could escape, though. Kyle was just a pawn, and if there is one constant in the universe, it's that pawns were made to be sacrificed."

"Okay, if I understand your analogy…" the General said "Kyle was not the main brains of the operation…who was?"

"Two Venomian Generals named Josef Caine and Katlin Stienburg." Jason Kage cut in. "They got away…and I doubt that they're happy."

"Well, for now," Pepper said "The Imperials are beaten. They may come back, but we'll be ready for them. Return to Corneria. And once again, good work, all of you."

Epilogue

__

1 week later

Ed stood on the bridge of the _Black Knight _as the planet Zoness came into view. The clear blue waters were easily visible from orbit. The only sign of biological damage was in the southwest hemisphere, where the bioweapons had been manufactured by Androssian forces.

After the 3 squadrons had returned to Corneria, General Pepper had given them all an indefinite shore leave. This was easy to do, because the Imperial forces had all fallen back to Venom, and had not made any more aggressive attacks. Some forces tried to hold onto Macbeth, but the Damocles Security Force kicked them out.

Katya walked up to Ed "What are you thinking about now?"

"Well…" Ed said "I'm thinking about what happened on the Death Prism. I had wanted to kill Kyle so badly, but when I found out that he had been manipulated, I wanted to save him, and help him back to our side. And he had wanted to kill me, but then he gave his life for mine. I guess I just don't really understand what happened there."

"The way I see it," Katya said as she put her arm around Ed's "Is that Kyle must've decided that he would never be at peace until he repaid the debt you forced on him when you tried to help him…and he did repay that debt."

"You know, Katya…" Ed said "You're probably right. I'm just glad that the end result was that the Imperials have been beaten, and we are at peace…plus we get unlimited vacation time!"

Both Ed and Katya laughed about that as the _Black Knight _descended towards the planet.

THE END

Apology: I apologize for the love scene in part 5…it wasn't written too well.

Disclaimer: I only own the _Black Knight_, the Black Wolf Squadron, Shadow Wing, Prince Victor Davidson, Lt. General Magnusson, Admiral Ken Collins, Vice Admiral Gestahl, Generals Caine and Stienburg, The _Phantron_, the Death Prism, and the _Intimidator _class battlecruiser. All other things pertaining to Starfox and the Starfox universe copyright Nintendo…a great company that doesn't want to sue me…unlike that stupid RIAA (think they're the FBI, lousy punks). Refer to any other disclaimers for more detail.

One more thing: Ed Wallace and Black Wolf will return in Shattered Lylat: The Fragmentation War. First chapter will be out soon.


End file.
